


Best of You

by Eclipse9856



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Brother-Sister Relationships, F/M, Father-Daughter Relationship, McKirk UST, Murder, Past Child Abuse, Post-Divorce, Slow Burn, Small Towns
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-09
Updated: 2016-05-04
Packaged: 2018-06-01 03:17:22
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 27
Words: 58,084
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6498715
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eclipse9856/pseuds/Eclipse9856
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Best of You is 'about breaking away from the things that confine you.'- Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters.<br/>Or, the one where Leonard McCoy moves to Riverside, Iowa with his little girl because his ex-wife is a bitch and he meets the pretty and slightly complicated Jim Kirk.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Here I am, at it again. I was writing one story and this one started nagging at my brain. So, here's my OTP, FKirk/Bones. Modern AU style. As always, I don't own them, I just play with them. Don't own the song either, it's a good song though.

I needed somewhere to hang my head  
Without your noose  
You gave me something that I didn't have  
But had no use  
I was too weak to give in  
Too strong to lose  
My heart is under arrest again  
But I break loose  
My head is giving me life or death  
But I can't choose  
I swear I'll never give in  
I refuse

Is someone getting the best, the best, the best, the best of you?  
Is someone getting the best, the best, the best, the best of you?

Has someone taken your faith?  
Its real, the pain you feel  
The life, the love you'd die to heal  
The hope that starts the broken hearts  
You trust, you must  
Confess

Is someone getting the best, the best, the best, the best of you?

Best of You – Foo Fighters

* * *

"There you are," the bubbly redhead said with a smile from his new porch. "I was beginning to worry that you might've gotten lost. I'm Gaila Avery."

"Leonard McCoy," he smiled. "This is my daughter, Joanna."

"Well, nice to finally meet you both. Misses Thorne gave me your keys and I have the last of your paperwork."

"More paperwork. What I've always wanted," Leonard chuckled.

"It's not too bad. Just be glad they're not forcing you to drive up to Iowa City to do it," Gaila smiled. "Our clinic is part of the University of Iowa system. You'll have privileges up at the main hospital. You will need to go up there for an ID but you have about a week. I also have a list of places you'll need to know and numbers you should have as the only full-time doctor in town."

"Only?" he gave her a look as she let him and Joanna into the old -but nice- house.

"You know that Doctor Boyce is retiring. He'll work through the end of the year but after Christmas, you're mostly on your own. There's a doctor and a nurse practitioner, M'Benga and Chapel, that rotate down from IC but you'll be the only full-time permanent physician. Don't worry, we're not usually too busy. Sick kids, old people, the occasional tractor mishap. Welcome to Riverside," Gaila chuckled.

Leonard could admit that the small farm town -with less than a thousand people in it- was not his first choice of places to live but when he and his ex-wife, Jocelyn, divorced, she destroyed the one thing he cared about other than their daughter; his career. Overnight, the thirty-two-year-old went from being an up and coming surgeon in the Atlanta area to woefully unemployed. Leonard doesn't know how she pulled it off but nobody in any of the major medical systems back home would hire him. After reaching out to an old professor from Ole Miss, he ended up agreeing to take a job at the small clinic in Riverside, just south of Iowa City.

Even though she was against the move, his mother agreed that a change of pace might be good for him. He could admit that he needed a breather from the chaos he had back home and Riverside was close enough to a few bigger cities for the small town to be the perfect place to relax, maybe even to stick around if he and Joanna like it.

On the topic of his daughter, he was shocked as all hell when Jocelyn handed him the papers giving him sole custody of Joanna. Leonard honestly thought that Lyn would hold that child over his head for the rest of his natural life. The shock wore off when he found out from his mother, who talked to Jocelyn's mother, that the man his wife cheated on him with didn't like kids. Jocelyn would rather keep that asshole happy than take care of her daughter. As far as Leonard was concerned, it was a good thing, especially for his eight-year-old. As much as he wanted to strangle Lyn, he was just glad he didn't have to deal with her.

"Anything else I should know?" Leonard asked as he signed the stack of papers on the coffee table. Hooray for mostly furnished houses.

"Umm, the grocery store is okay but since you're from a big city, you might find it lacking. There's a couple Walmarts around, all within half an hour of here going north, south or east. Riverside doesn't have a police department but the county sheriff and his people are great. The school is small but awesome. Your daughter will have Miss Uhura, she's amazing and way too good for us but she likes being able to teach on a personal level."

"That's always good," he sighed.

"It is. Everyone goes to church, even if they don't _believe_. We all go to the football games too. As the town doctor, you'll be expected to show up to both. There's a casino out by the clinic but most of the locals avoid it like the plague. If you want a drink, either buy your own and drink here or go over to Quark's. Oh, don't run over any livestock unless you wanna pay for it. The weather's okay now but it can get cold, you will need a heavy coat by mid-November, at the latest. I think that's all the important stuff."

"Okay, great," Leonard said, looking around the room.

"Don't worry, you'll get used to this place. Then you won't ever want to leave."

"We'll see."

* * *

His mother warned him that moving to such a small town meant he was going to be the center of attention until the locals got something else to focus on but Leonard thought she was just trying to discourage him from moving. He should've listened. He could feel the eyes on him as he sat in his car outside the small elementary school waiting for his little girl to be dismissed. Leonard did get a kick out of the giggling moms the first few days he was in town but now, almost two weeks later, he found it to be a little annoying. It was like people never saw a single dad before.

He hopped out of his car and leaned against the door just as he spotted Joanna running down the stairs. She looked up, spotted him and waved like she always does, this time, however, she missed the step in front of her. Leonard moved to catch her, knowing good and damn well that he wasn't close enough to make it count, when a pair of arms shot out and caught his little girl around the middle before she hit the ground. Almost like he was frozen in place, he followed the sweater clad arm up to long and wavy blonde hair framing a beautiful face with full lips and a pair of deep blue eyes.

"Are you okay, sweetheart?" the woman asked his daughter as he rushed over to them.

"I'm okay. You're a good catcher," Joanna smiled.

"Practice," the blonde smiled back. And what a smile it was, her whole face lit up and her blue eyes sparkled. She was gorgeous… and probably way too young for him.

"Daddy," Joanna ran over to hug him. "Did you see that?"

"You almost bit the concrete, I saw," he chuckled, checking her over, even though he was sure she was fine. "Thank you for catching her."

"Happens around here all the time," the woman said. "You just learn to catch 'em on the stairs. One year, kid fell and took out half the kindergartners. Made for a fun few days."

"I'll have to remember that," Leonard said with a smile. "You work here."

"Uh, no. I love kids but not that much. I'm just picking up my nephew," she smiled and offered her hand. "Jim Kirk."

"Jim?" he raised an eye brow as he shook hands with her. "That's an odd name for a girl."

"But it's mine. It's short for Jamison but my mother is only person who dares to call me that to my face," Jim smiled. "Nice to finally meet you, Doctor McCoy."

"You know who I am."

"I know a lot of things. Besides, you're new; the gossip train started rolling as soon as you crossed into town."

"Am I ever gonna get used to it?" Leonard asked, more to himself then her.

"Maybe, maybe not. You never know if you don't try," Jim said.

"Aunt Jimmy, come on," a boy, maybe a year older than Joanna, with reddish-brown hair and blue eyes said, tugging at Jim's arm.

"Okay, Pete, okay," she ruffled the kid's hair before looking up at Leonard. "I should get him home. See you around, Doctor McCoy."

"Miss Kirk," Leonard smiled and watched as she walked away.

"You think she's pretty," Joanna smiled.

"What? I do not."

"Yes you do."

"How would you know that?" he asked his daughter as they walked to his car.

Joanna smiled, "You're staring at her."


	2. Chapter 2

"Do you mind checking over a bunch of drunk guys who got into a fight over at the casino?" Gaila asked him after his finished up with a patient.

"Do I have to?" Leonard asked the redhead.

"No but it's the nice thing to do," she told him. "The sheriff doesn't want to drag them all to the ER. It's more paperwork."

"I guess I can take a look. Casino's up the street, right?" he sighed.

"Yep. Make a right on twenty-two and go straight. There will be a sign when you have to make a left. It's the only thing over there and it only takes a few minutes," Gaila smiled, handing him his medical bag and his jacket.

"How'd you know I would say yes?"

"You're a surgeon from a big town, you've been itching to do something -anything- other than treat snotty kids and old people since you got here."

"Fair enough," Leonard chuckled as he pulled on his jacket. "I'll be back in a little bit."

He got in his car and followed the directions he was given. Doctor Boyce warned him that with such a small town, he was bound to make a house call or two but he didn't mention doing runs to the casino. Leonard figured a place like that would at least have someone with medical training on hand.

Leonard pulled up next to a marked Ford Expedition and chanced a glance at the other Sheriff's Department cars; a pair of Dodge Chargers, one black like the Expedition and one in a brushed silver with black markings. He shook the car envy out of his head, grabbed his bag and got out of the car.

"Doctor McCoy," a man in his late forties to mid-fifties said as Leonard walked over. The doctor just gave him a nod as the man held out his hand. "I'm Sheriff Chris Pike."

"Nice to meet ya," Leonard smiled and shook hands with the Washington County Sheriff. "Heard I could be of some help."

"Some idiots from the college came down here, got drunk off their asses and started a fight with each other and some of our less than productive locals. Nothing's life threatening but we got one with a gash in his head and I don't want him bleeding all over my jail… or my vehicles."

"Can't blame you, those are some nice rides," Leonard chuckled as Pike led him through the casino.

"They're new-ish. The Chargers are hand-me-downs from state police and the Expedition is six months old," the sheriff said with a shrug as he pushed open a door. There were three guys sitting in chairs with a big deputy standing over them. "Hendorff, where's the other one?"

"In the bathroom, he was bleeding all over the place," the big guy, Deputy Hendorff, said. Leonard made a mental note not to mess with him.

"Alone?" Leonard asked.

"Not alone," a slightly familiar voice said from behind him. Leonard turned to find Jim Kirk standing there, in jeans and a leather jacket with a badge and gun on her hip, her hand wrapped around some kid's arm. The guy was holding gauze to his head, wincing as he did. "I'm pretty sure there's glass in his wound. Idiot."

"That's usually my line, Miss Kirk," Leonard chuckled. "He's probably gonna need a trip to the ER, just let me check him over real quick before you take him. I never would've guessed that you worked for the sheriff."

"Most people don't. I use it to my advantage," she smiled and forced the kid to take a seat. "We appreciate the help, Doc."

"It's what I'm here for. What's your name, kid?" Leonard asked the guy, who just glared at him.

"You're not gonna like me very much if the good doctor has to repeat himself. He asked you a question," Jim said, crossing her arms and staring down at the kid. Leonard had a feeling that she was probably tougher than she was beautiful, and she's really beautiful.

"Lee Kelso," the guy muttered.

"Were you drinking, Lee?" Leonard asked as he checked the two-inch gash on the side of Lee's head. Granted, it wasn't even lunch time yet but time disappears in a casino. The question Leonard stopped himself from asking was why this kid and his buddies were drinking and gambling when they probably should've been in class.

"I had a few," Lee admitted.

"Can you follow the light with your eyes?" the doctor slowly waved the penlight in front of Lee's face, who followed along. Leonard checked a few other things and asked him some more questions before he looked up at Jim. "Doesn't look like he has any brain damage but I recommend he gets a CT and that wound has to be sutured before you take him to the jail."

"Oh joy," she sighed as Leonard quickly moved through the other three men.

The doctor looked at the sheriff, "Other than being drunk and dumb, they're okay."

"Alright," Pike said. "Lieutenant Kirk, take Lee to county and stay with him until they release him."

"Yea, because I have nothing better to do with my time. I've been on my way home since oh-six hundred," Jim said with an impressive eye roll.

"And yet, here you are," Pike said with a smile.

"You're the one who dragged me into this. I'm never having breakfast with you again," she said as she pulled Lee to his feet. "You gonna do my paperwork?"

"I'll think about it," the sheriff told her with a playful smirk.

"And here I thought I was your favorite," Jim smiled. From the sounds of it, this was a common conversation between the sheriff and the lieutenant, Leonard suddenly found himself wondering just what their relationship was, not that it was any of his business.

"You are my favorite, which is why I don't have to keep an eye on you and why I don't mind approving your overtime. We'll take care of the rest of these idiots and I will _start_ Lee's paperwork for you," Pike said.

"You do love me," she chuckled.

"Get outta here, Jimmy, before I change my mind," Pike ordered.

"I'm going," Jim smiled. "See ya around, Doc."

"Lieutenant Kirk," Leonard smiled back.

"Thank you, Doctor McCoy for checking them over," Pike said as he and Hendorff grabbed the other three guys.

"It's what I do," Leonard said with a shrug.

* * *

"You mind?" Jim asked quietly as he sat in the back pew of the church.

Leonard wouldn't say he was religious -though he wore his Saint Christopher and Saint Luke pendants faithfully- but his mama ingrained the habit of going to Sunday morning service into him a long time ago. If he was being honest, he had a 'what would Jesus do' moment when he found his wife in bed with another man. He was sure that it was the only reason he didn't completely lose his shit and beat the hell out of the guy. Leonard shook the thought out of his head and smiled at Jim, Joanna had run off to Sunday school with the other kids, so he had plenty of room.

"Not at all," he said as he moved over for her to take the spot closest to the aisle. Leonard watched as she sat down. "Working?"

"What gave me away?" she whispered with a smile.

"The gun," Leonard whispered back. "The uniform doesn't hurt, either." It was the same uniform he saw on the sheriff and Deputy Hendorff, except it was obviously cut for a woman and Jim had lieutenant bars on her collar. The only thing she was missing was the bulletproof vest that the others wore when he met them. Leonard didn't know if it was a regulation thing or a comfort thing. What he did know was that Jim looked damn good in uniform.

"I'm the supervisor on duty today," Jim whispered.

"Are you one of the overly religious types?" he asked quietly. He found it a little odd that she was working but still showed up for service. Then again, most of the town was in one church or the other at the moment.

"There's a saying, 'there are no atheists in foxholes'," she whispered. "I have to believe that someone out there is keeping an eye on me and my guys."

"That's a very true. Maybe you need my Saint Christopher more than I do."

"I got a Saint Michael in the cruiser," Jim smiled before turning her attention to Pastor Martin.

Leonard listened to the -very appropriate- message about rebirth and renewal but his gaze kept drifting to the woman next to him. If she noticed that he was looking at her, she didn't act like it. He watched her as she payed attention to the sermon, while observing the people, a small smile on her face. The service was nearing its end when Jim looked at the smartwatch on her arm and let out a quiet groan.

"Duty calls?" he asked quietly.

"Yep," she smiled as she got up. "See you around, Bones."

Bones?

* * *

"How much do you know about Jim Kirk?" Leonard asked Gaila first thing Monday morning.

"Plenty. We're sorta sisters," the redhead told him. He gave her a look. "Her brother, George, and my sister, Arlene, are married to each other… high school sweethearts. Me and Jim have known each other since we were babies but now we're kinda related. Why do you ask?"

"Nothing, I just… I saw her yesterday at church. She called me Bones," he said.

"Oh, you got a nickname," Gaila chuckled. "She gives them most people. She's been calling me 'Red' since she could talk. I wonder why she picked that one for you."

"I have no idea."

"You could always ask her."

"I've only run in to her a few times," Leonard said with a shrug. "We barely know anything about each other."

"You really believe that, that's cute," Gaila chuckled. "She's Sheriff Pike's right hand person and the senior investigator at the department, she knows everything about everyone in the county and then some. It's her job."

"What's the deal with the two of them anyway, her and Pike?" he asked before he could think better of it. Gaila smiled. "I didn't… don't… answer…"

"He and her dad were rookie cops together in Iowa City," she paused. "I think the rest should come from her. Most people around here know pieces of the story but Jim, her family and the sheriff are the only ones who know the whole thing."

"That bad?"

"Parts of it. If you want to know, ask her. Jim may be a bit of a loner but she's not shy," Gaila told him.

"How could someone like that be a loner?" Leonard asked. If anything, he's the loner.

"She's smart, she's pretty, she doesn't take shit from anyone and she's an expert marksman. People who don't know her well are usually intimidated by her, so she keeps to herself," the redhead smiled. "If you want to know anything other than that, you gotta talk to her. That is, if you remember how to talk to pretty girls."

"I do just fine, thank you very much."

"We'll see."


	3. Chapter 3

"Come here often?" Leonard couldn't help himself when he spotted Jim at the football game. She was leaning against the side of the bleachers in her uniform. Unlike Sunday, she was wearing her bulletproof vest over her coat.

"Too much it seems, I went to school here. At least it's the end of the season," she smiled, not missing a beat. She glanced at him. "Where's mini-you?"

"Joanna is over there with Gaila, your nephew and your mother," he met Winona Davis when Peter and Joanna starting talking to each other about some video game and the three adults were left to themselves. Gaila gave him a nudge, pointed Jim out and urged him to talk to her, so he went. "You know, your mother doesn't look old enough to be your mother."

"That's because the woman doesn't age," Jim shrugged. "I used to think it was creepy but now I just think I'll be lucky if I got those genetics."

"I bet your dad gets a kick outta that," he said.

"Uh… he's dead."

"I'm really sorry. I had no idea."

"It's okay, you're like the only person around here who doesn't know that," she smiled.

"Still sucks. I lost my father a few years ago. Nothing's been the same since," Leonard sighed. Cancer was a heartless bitch. It didn't matter what treatments his father did or how hard the man fought, cancer still won and David McCoy lost.

"I'm sorry. Were you close?" Jim asked.

"Yea. He's why I became a doctor. I wanted to be just like him," he smiled. The memory of his father watching him graduate from medical was one of his favorites.

"I bet he was proud."

"He was. Funny thing is… this whole 'small town doctor' thing is much more his speed. He'd get such a kick out of this," Leonard said with a chuckle. "What about you? Were you and your dad close?"

"I never met him. My dad died the day I was born, almost twenty-seven years ago. He was responding to a domestic and got shot in the neck trying to get this woman away from her lowlife husband. He was in the OR when mom went into labor and died two minutes after I was born. Some people think he passed his soul to me. As grim as it is, sometimes I think it might be true. I mean, how many geniuses grow up on farms and become cops."

"I'm guessing it's not many. I'm sorry. I can't imagine not knowing my dad. That's… wow."

"Yea," she smiled just as her radio crackled to life. Jim listened for a few moments before she smiled at him. "Gotta go. Fist fights at Quark's are my favorite." She injected so much sarcasm into that sentence, Leonard found it impossible not to laugh. "See ya, Bones."

"Why 'Bones'?" he asked as she walked toward her vehicle.

"Sawbones is slang for a surgeon," Jim called back. "I can't keep calling you Doc because Boyce is Doc, so you're Bones."

"How'd you know I was a surgeon?" Leonard asked as she got into the Charger.

"Oh, Doctor McCoy, you'd be surprised at the things I know."

* * *

He was late. In the little more than a month he's been in town, picking Joanna up from school was a simple thing. He didn't schedule any appointments between two-thirty and three-thirty, which wasn't difficult, giving him plenty of time to get to the school, have a snack with his daughter and get back to the clinic, where Jo did her homework in his office or hung out at the first desk with Gaila. Unfortunately, this week has been crazy and now, he was really late. He wanted to blame it on his patient, but the old man couldn't really be faulted for being old or asking a million questions.

"I'll be back," he called to Gaila as he rushed past her and Boyce talking in the reception area.

"She's not at the school anymore," the redhead said.

"What?" Leonard asked, stopping in his tracks and turning to look at her.

"Joanna's not at the school. Jim called when you didn't show up. Since you were with a patient, I told her it was okay to take Joanna to the Kirk Farm, it's right down the road. Jim got called to the station for an emergency, so she's not there anymore but my sister says Joanna can stay as long as you need. She's doing her homework with Pete, then they're gonna help Winona and George with some of the easy chores."

"That's very nice of them," Leonard sighed, the urgency draining out of him. Joanna was fine.

"We all look out for each other around here. Besides, George has a huge soft spot for his sister, he'll do just about anything she asks. Used to drive my sister crazy until Arlene learned to use it to her advantage. The two of them teaming up on him is hilarious."

"I'll bet."

"Here," she handed him a piece of paper with the Kirk Farm number written on it. "If you want to check on Joanna, just call. Somebody usually answers it."

"Thanks, Gaila."

"No problem."

* * *

Leonard was genuinely surprised to get an invitation to dinner when he called the Kirk Farm to check on his little girl. Other than school and work, the pair of McCoys had kept to themselves since they moved to town. They weren't trying to be standoffish, he just wanted to get his bearings before he started interacting with people on a personal level. His ex-wife being a cheater might have a little bit to do with it too.

He followed Gaila, who was also going to dinner, down the main road before they turned onto a fairly large property. There were two houses, that he could see, a barn and a few other structures. Looking around some more, he could tell that these weren't the only buildings on the Kirk Farm. He parked his car next to Gaila's and hopped out, taking a better look around as he did.

"It's actually bigger than it looks," Gaila chuckled. "Winona bought the farm next door when we were all in high school and nearly doubled the acreage. Corn's the major crop but they grow wheat and apples too."

"Who lives over there?" he motioned to a house about fifty yards away, on the other side of the barn.

"My sister, George and Pete. Technically, it's Jim and George's property, some provision in their father's will, so it makes sense for them to live here. Jim lives in the house on the other end of the farm. She has a bit more privacy than everyone else since nobody goes over there much."

"That's gotta be nice," he smiled. His neighbors were a bit more nosy than he'd like. He couldn't blame him, he was probably going to be the new guy until someone else moved to town and, according to Gaila, that could take a decade.

"It is. She's been out there since she was seventeen or so and did a lot of the work herself," the redhead shrugged as they walked up the three stairs in front of the house and into the front door. "Honey, I'm home."

"Back here, Gaila," came the voice of Jim's mother from the back of the house. Gaila hung up their jackets before she led him through the warm and welcoming home.

"That smells good," Gaila smiled. "Need help?"

"Nope," a woman, who Leonard figured had to be Arlene thanks to the reddish-brown hair, said as she walked into the room. "We got it… and you can't cook."

"I'm telling mom you said that. She taught me, same as you and I cook just fine," Gaila pouted.

"If you say so, Gigi. Hi, Doctor McCoy, Arlene Kirk," the woman smiled.

"Hi," he said as he looked around.

"She's outside with George and Peter," Arlene told him. How did she know what he was thinking? "I know that look anywhere. She's fine. She even helped me milk the cows."

"Joanna helped you milk a cow?" Leonard asked.

"More than one. She's a quick learner, that one," Winona said.

"That she is," he chuckled. His baby girl is as city as they come so the idea that she milked cows is funny. "I really have to thank y'all…"

"Oh, stop it. That girl can't spend all her after school time with you. I bet you got through your day faster without having to worry about her," the older woman said to him. "She's welcome here with us anytime."

"I might have to take you up on that," Leonard chuckled. She was right, Jo can't be with him all the time, it'll drive them both crazy. "Hadn't really thought about it, to be honest. Can't fault me for wanting to keep an eye on her."

"Protective much," Arlene muttered.

"Considering that my ex-wife cheated on me, dumped me, divorced me, ruined my career, gave up custody to Joanna and didn't even ask for visitation…" he let the sentence drop knowing the three woman understood him.

"Never let Jim meet your ex," Gaila told him.

"That girl has a particular disdain for people who just throw away their children," Arlene sighed.

"Because of her father?" Leonard asked. They all nodded but he could tell there was more to it, especially when this look crossed Winona's features. He wasn't going to ask but he sure as hell wanted to. "Is she like him? Her dad."

"You have no idea," a tall man said as he walked into the room with Joanna and Peter. By process of elimination, Leonard knew that the guy with the same blonde hair and blue eyes as Jim had to be George. "I remember him and Jim… She's so much like dad it's crazy. George Kirk."

"Leonard McCoy but I'm guessing you knew that already."

"I did spend the afternoon with your daughter," George smiled before he ordered the kids to get cleaned up for dinner. Joanna kissed Leonard on the cheek before she ran off, having some conversation with Peter. "She's a good kid."

"I try," Leonard smiled.

"You boys and Gaila need to get cleaned up too," Winona said. "Go."

"Yes, ma'am," was the response the three of them gave her before following the giggling children, Arlene laughing at them the whole time.


	4. Chapter 4

"Arlene said that this is for you," Leonard said when he walked over to the garage of the other house on the Kirk property with a container of really good meatloaf and mashed potatoes.

"Just sit it over there," Jim sighed, her hands inside the engine of a car. "Where's Joanna?"

"Asleep in my car," he chuckled and glanced back to take a look at his daughter before looking at Jim. "Thank you for today."

"No problem. It's what I do. Protect, serve, don't let little girls sit outside the school alone," she chuckled.

"I guess. Your family said she could come over after school so she's not at the clinic with me. And they're refusing to let me pay for it."

"Not surprised. They're all here most of the time. I'm the only one who doesn't actually work on the farm year round. I help out if can but I'm not here that much," Jim told him. "Can you hand me that wrench?"

"Yea," Leonard said as he grabbed the tool and gave it to her. "This is a nice car. A nineteen sixty-five Chevrolet Corvette Stingray?" She gave him a nod. "I haven't seen one of these in person, ever. May I?"

"Go ahead," she smiled. Leonard opened the door on the driver's side and sat down. For a car this old, she took really good care of it, not that he's surprised. Jim seemed like the kind of person that doesn't leave things undone. If he didn't have Joanna, he'd probably have time for a car that required this much attention. "It was my dad's car. My brother used to drive it but after he got married and had Pete, he switched to a more family-friendly vehicle and gave her to me."

"I know all about that one. Going family-friendly, that is."

"I'm sure you do," she said as she closed the hood and leaned against the front fender.

Every time he's seen her, she had a smile on her face and a pep in her step but not today. Leonard found himself wanting to fix whatever was bothering her. "Are you okay?"

"MVA... err, car accident on the southern edge of the county with fatalities. I wasn't even working today… End up having to tell a mother that her seventeen-year-old wasn't coming home. If there's anything about my job that I hate, it's dead kids."

"You and me both. I'm sorry, Jim."

"You know what's worse? It could've been prevented. He was drinking, he wasn't wearing his seatbelt, speeding. I'm usually pretty good about keeping my work and my life separate but I can't shake it," she told him. "It's why I skipped dinner. I can't deal with my mom and all the crap in my head right now."

"I've had a few of those; cases that just weigh heavy on your heart. Usually, it means that there's something you're supposed to learn about yourself and that's why it sticks with you," he sighed.

"I know. The kid… he just reminded me of myself a little over a decade ago. I keep thinking that if Chris hadn't pulled me from my ledge, I would've gone over."

"How so?" Leonard asked. Jim gave him a look. "I'm the only person in town who doesn't know anything about you."

"You didn't hear all the rumors?"

"I never put much stock in rumors. They tend to be wrong."

"Good point," Jim chuckled. "My dad and Chris were friends. When my dad died, Chris did his best to keep an eye on us but when I was like seven, my mom married this guy, Frank Bower. He threatened Chris and told him to 'stay away from his family'. Since Chris wasn't actually related to us, there was nothing he could do."

"Sounds like there's more to the story."

"Frank was abusive and that's putting it mildly. When my mom wasn't around he'd beat on us. My brother would usually get the worst of it because he stuck up for me but trust me when I tell you, I can take a hit. We tried to tell but he just came up with some crap about us getting hurt doing our chores and nobody believed us. Mom still denies it even though she saw it at one point. Anyway, one day when I was twelve, Frank tossed me against the barn's back wall, held me there by my throat. Mom found us, she fought him off, kicked him out, divorced him."

"But the psychological damage was done." He's treated more of his fair share of abuse victims since he was in medical school to know that everyone has their own reactions.

"For years, my brother was the only person who ever showed me any kindness. Frank just... My brother became protective and overly cautious, even to this day he's careful about who gets close to him and to me. I, on the other hand, became a loose cannon. I was reckless, got into trouble, drank way more alcohol than any teenager should ever have access to, had absolutely no respect for authority. I didn't care. The way Chris phrased it; the only genius-level repeat offender in the Midwest with a whole lotta brains and no fuckin' sense."

"So, how did you go from that to this?" Leonard wasn't an idiot. The person she's describing herself as would probably be in jail, not the second in command of the sheriff's office.

"When I was fifteen, I got into some trouble up in Cedar Rapids. Cop that arrested me knew my dad and instead of booking me, he called Chris. Found myself sitting across from him at this crappy ass diner. He didn't say anything, he just waited and eventually I started talking. I felt like I'd been screaming at the top of my lungs my whole life and he was the first person to just listen. I'll admit, I wasn't nice to him at first, as far as I knew, he was just someone else who left us with Frank. That night, he gave me his phone number and made me promise to call him whenever I needed anything, _anything_. He kept his word. Answered my calls at two in the morning and talked me through whatever was rolling around in my head. Let me stay with him for a few days every time I ran away. He figured out the problem with my living arrangements."

"What was the problem?"

"I never felt safe in the big house, not that anyone could blame me. Most memories I have over there are bad. My mom… she wasn't much help, which is why I ran. Chris got me a job after school at the police station, washing the cars and cleaning the cells. When I graduated from high school, top of my class to the shock of many, they offered me a full-time job. When I was twenty, I decided to become a sworn officer, he wrote a five-page recommendation to the sheriff's department and they endorsed my application to the academy. Last year, after five years on the job, I got promoted to lieutenant; youngest ever in the department. A week later, Chris was elected sheriff. Oddly enough, I was the one who ended up showing him around. I don't know what I'd be doing right now if it wasn't for him keeping me out of trouble."

"And the kid today reminded you of all that?" he asked.

"Yea. He was drunk off his ass but that's no reason for him to die. It could've been me. A few times when I was a teenager, I wished it was."

"Don't think like that."

"I don't… now," she sighed. "I wouldn't do that to my brother or Chris. It's just… heavy on my heart, like you said." Jim looked at him. "You know, you're a really good listener."

"I'm pretty sure my ex would disagree with you."

"She can if she wants but you're not the cheater."

"How could you possibly know that?" Leonard gave her a look as he got out of the car and crossed his arms over his chest. Jim's eyes watching him with a hint of caution.

"Don't get all bent out of shape near my car. Divorces are public record unless a judge seals them. You don't talk about her, neither does Joanna. If the split was amicable, you wouldn't clench your jaw at the mere mention of the former Misses McCoy. Besides, you don't seem like the type who would cheat. So, am I right?" He looked at her. "I'm right."

"You are," Leonard nodded and shoved his hands into his jacket pockets. "I was scheduled to do a fourteen-hour surgery one day. The patient died two hours before we were due to prep him and there was nothing I could do. I decided that since I wasn't on call and I had more time than I was used to, I'd go home and get some rest. Found Lyn in bed with one of the lawyers she worked with. She tried to blame her actions on my father's death. How it was so hard for her like I didn't lose the man who loved me my whole life. Then she tried to blame it on Joanna and how I didn't love her as much after our daughter was born. Then it was how much I worked like she didn't meet me when I was pre-med. The more Lyn talked, the angrier I got. I didn't say anything, I just packed a bag for me and Jo and we stayed at my mother's."

"Ouch."

"No shit. It's not like I didn't try. It's just…"

"It takes two people to make it work and she was banging her lawyer buddy, so she obviously didn't care too much about working it out."

He smiled, "That's what my mother said."

"Smart lady."

"She is."

"All of that still doesn't explain how you ended up in the middle of nowhere Iowa."

"That's simple; Jocelyn didn't like that I wouldn't talk to her after I found her with Clay. She showed up the hospital ranting and raving that I was a drunk who beat on her. It wasn't true but perception is everything. The family of the patient I lost starting asking questions, then the family of this little girl I'd been treating since I was an intern pulled me from her case and before I knew it, my name was being dragged through the dirt and the hospital was in CYA mode."

"Cover your ass."

"Yep. It was a nice severance package, if I do say so myself. Tried to find a new job but the damage was done and I was somehow blacklisted. Everyone said the same thing; a good doctor with a fucked up reputation," Leonard sighed. "Luckily, one of my professors from Ole Miss was still taking my calls. Doctor Griffin and Boyce went to school together and Griff knew that Boyce was trying to retire. A bunch of phone interviews later and here I am, in the middle of Iowa."

"Well, it could be worse."

"How's that?"

"Most of us are nice," Jim smiled.

"That is very true," he smiled back. "I should probably go. Sleeping kid in the car and all that. Besides, you should probably go inside, it's getting cold out here."

"October's not too bad. November is another story. It'll be snowing by Thanksgiving, though, just wait," she said, looking off in the distance. Leonard couldn't help but stare at her. There was something about the way the lights in her garage hit her eyes that made them almost glow.

"Get inside before you catch a cold. I already have enough patients and I don't need you coughing up a lung in my clinic," Leonard told her.

"What, you don't make house calls?"

"I've only made three since I've been here but for you, I would definitely make a house call," he smiled.

"Good to know."

"Get inside."

"I guess it's a good thing I'm done for now. You're worse than my brother," she chuckled. "Thank you for checking on me."

"I was just doing what Arlene asked."

"She asked you to drop off her meatloaf, not listen to my problems."

"I don't mind listening."

"I'll have to remember that," Jim smiled. "You should get that sweet girl home."

"Yes, ma'am. Goodnight, Miss Kirk." He didn't want to go but it was probably best that he did.

"Goodnight, Bones."


	5. Chapter 5

"Come on, daddy," Joanna said as she pulled him past all the people. Arlene had them park over by the main house but they had to head though the farm to get to everyone and everything else.

"Slow down, baby girl. It's not going anywhere," Leonard chuckled.

"I know it's not. Peter told me that there's a hayride and a bunch of pumpkins. And Miss Jim helps out during the Harvest and Halloween Festivals when she's not working on the weekends," she smiled. "So, come on."

"How'd I let you talk me into this?" he asked the little girl.

"I'm adorable and you love me and Miss Jim is gonna be here and you like her."

"I do not," Leonard lied. He might, _might,_ like Jim a little but he was not going to encourage Joanna, she was already too excited about spending their Saturday with the Kirks.

"You do too, daddy. Ray Charles can see that."

"What do you know about Ray Charles?"

"Nana says he was the best," Joanna smiled.

"Well, nana is usually right," he begrudgingly admitted as they made their way through the people. "Don't tell her I said that, she'll never let us hear the end of it."

"I'll think about it," his girl said with a chuckle.

"Guys, over here," George called to them. There were some other people around but Joanna was moving before Leonard could do anything.

This wasn't the first time Leonard's ever been to a farm at the end of harvest season and right before Halloween. During the day on the weekends, there was stuff like a pumpkin patch, a petting zoo provided by another local farm, a giant haystack, farm tours, apple picking and bunch of other stuff. At night in October, they did the haunted hayride and other appropriately spooky stuff.

"Hey, Mister George," Joanna smiled. "Where are Pete and Miss Jim?"

"Pete is finishing up with his chores. You can go on over to the house if you want to help. Jim is by the maze," George smiled.

"Daddy, can I go?" Joanna asked.

"Yea. She doesn't need an armband, does she?"

"Nope. She gets a lanyard," the tall man said, pulling an employee tag out of his pocket and handing it to Jo. "May the force be with you, my young padawan learner."

"And with you, Jedi master," Joanna chuckled before giving Leonard a hug and running off.

"Star Wars? Really?" the southerner raised an eyebrow.

"Blame my sister," George chuckled. "I have one for you too. You don't have to do any work but you can go wherever you want without our seasonal guys giving you any grief." The other man handed Leonard his own tag.

"Cool. How long have you guys been doing this?"

"I talked mom into it like five or so years ago. She wasn't really sold on the idea because it's a farm town and locals aren't really into it but we get people from Cedar Rapids and further coming down here. We make a good profit, so it's worth it. Even Jim helps out with this one."

"I wouldn't peg her for the Harvest Festival type," Leonard admitted.

"Well, Jim's not exactly easy to read. She has this trait of only letting people see what they want to see," George pointed out. Someone called over to him and the tall blonde waved at the guy. "I gotta get back to work. Have fun."

"Yea," Leonard nodded and watched the other man jog away.

* * *

"You don't have to stand over there," Jim called over when she spotted him watching -read: staring- at her. "Come on up. Join me upon my throne of hay."

"Might as well, since I'm an employee and all," he chuckled as he hopped up on the haystack with her.

"Ahh, Sam got to you already. Can't blame him, it's always good to have a medical professional on the payroll," she smiled.

"You mean, I'm getting paid?" Leonard smiled.

"Maybe. If you have to patch someone up."

"Good to know. What are you doing?"

"Making sure people don't get too lost in the corn maze. Every year we have someone who does. I'm hoping that I don't have to go in there this year, so we'll see," Jim shrugged. "What are you doing here?"

"I made Joanna a promise to bring her. She ditched me as soon as your brother gave her an employee pass. Should I be worried?"

"No. That kid knows her way around and Pete carries a two-way when they're not by the house. That part of the farm is blocked off from customers anyway. She'll be fine."

"That's good to know," he smiled.

"What?"

"Nothing."

"You got this look like there's something," she smiled. "Spill the beans, Bones."

"I think my kid is trying to hook us up," Leonard said.

"Joanna McCoy: Master Matchmaker," Jim laughed.

"That's not funny. I got enough to worry about."

"Like getting divorced and moving halfway across the country all within the last five months? You haven't gotten yourself figured out yet, there's no way you'd add a woman to that," she said.

"I didn't say that."

"You didn't have to. I'm right… but so is Joanna," Jim chuckled. "You like me, even though you don't wanna admit it."

"Someone's sure of herself," he looked at her and tried to figure out just how she knew that.

"One of my many talents," Jim smirked. Leonard raised an eyebrow. "Look, part of why I'm so good at my job is because I'm good with people. I solve most problems not by drawing my weapon but by talking and listening and paying attention. So, it's not that I'm sure of myself, despite the fact that I totally am and you dig me, I just know my way around people. As of late, that includes grumpy doctors from Georgia."

"We're a special breed, are we?" Leonard asked with a smile.

"Oh, yea. I'm thinking that I should institute some extra training at the department on how to deal with you," she chuckled.

"Really? What are you gonna call it, 'How to handle Doctor Bones one-oh-one'?"

"Hmm, that's not a bad title," Jim said, her hand on her chin like she was thinking about it. "I might have to run that by Chris."

"You do that," the southerner smiled.

"Maybe I will, Doctor Bones."

"You're a trip," he chuckled.

"I have my moments."

* * *

"I'm about to walk into church, mama," Bones said into his phone. He loves her to death but the woman calls him at the craziest times.

"You're still going to church?" his mother said.

"You asked me that last week and the week before that and the week before that one," he chuckled. "The answer is always the same."

"Well, how am I supposed to know if you're telling the truth?" she asked.

"I don't know. Why aren't you in church?" Leonard asked, even with the hour time difference, his mother still goes to service around the same time he does.

"Pastor and half the congregation are all out sick," his mama told him in her soothing southern draw while his daughter tapped his shoulder and pointed to Jim, who was getting out of her car. He gave Jo a nod and watched her as she ran to the blonde. "Are you gonna answer my question, Lenny?"

"Yes, mama, I still go to Sunday morning service. Everybody around here does. I gotta go," he said. "I will call you back later."

"Okay. You kiss Joanna banana for me."

"Yes, ma'am. Love you, mama," Leonard smiled, even though she couldn't see it, he knew she could hear it in his voice.

"Love you too, Lenny," his mother said before she hung up from her end.

"Hey, Bones," Jim smiled as she and Joanna walked over to him.

"Miss Jim," he smiled back. "Jo, nana said hi."

"We'll call her later," Joanna said with a mischievous smile. "Hey, Miss Jim, you should sit with dad so he's not by himself when I go to Sunday school."

"She probably wants to sit with her family…" Leonard started but Jim slowly shook her head. "No. Really?"

"If I'm not on shift, I usually sit with friends. If I sit with my mom, she'll take it as an invitation to talk to me, then it turns into this thing about my childhood and then we end up glaring at each other before my brother has to get in the middle," Jim shrugged. "That's not a can of worms I want to open."

"You guys ever gonna bury it?" he asked. Leonard realized that every time he's seen Jim and her mother in the same place, they don't interact with each other. He didn't think much of it before but it was a little odd. Both women seemed to have a good relationship with the rest of their family, just not with each other.

"Not the time or place for that conversation. Suffice to say, she doesn't think there's a problem," Jim sighed.

"Which is the problem," Leonard said, understanding just where Jim was coming from. "Would you like to sit with me?"

"I don't need a pity pew-mate," she chuckled.

"Maybe I just want to sit next to my friend," he shrugged.

"Are we friends?" Jim asked.

"I think we are," Leonard said. He might not be ready to date anyone but he could always use a good friend.

Jim smiled that beautiful smile at him. "I would love to sit with you."


	6. Chapter 6

"Why haven't you unpacked any of this stuff yet?" Jim asked from somewhere in his bedroom. Leonard thought he might be dreaming about her for a second -wouldn't be the first time- but the look on Jim's face when he forced his eyes open was very real.

"What…? How are you here? When is it?" he grumbled as he rolled over, reaching for his watch on the nightstand. One of her hands gently pushed him away from the edge of the bed and she sat down next to him. Why the hell was she on his bed? Leonard closed his eyes and willed her to go away but she didn't.

"It's a little after oh-six hundred, Tuesday. Joanna let me in," she told him as she rested a hand on his forehead. "You're hot… and not in the 'I wanna bang you' sense of the word."

"Go away," Leonard moaned and tried to push her off but he didn't have any strength in his arms. What the hell?

"Can't do that, Bonesy. You kinda look like death," Jim said. He felt like it too but he wasn't going to tell her that.

"I'm fine and nobody asked for your help."

"If you're fine then I'm Captain America. Your daughter asked for my help. Joanna called me half an hour ago, said you were throwing up all night. She was in here on your phone and you didn't even notice. Kid was worried that you were gonna die on her," she sighed. "You probably picked something up from one of your patients. I already called Doctor Boyce, he'll cover your appointments and I'm gonna stay and keep an eye on you."

"Don't you have a job to get to?"

"I'm on the night shift for the next few days. I just got off duty," Jim said with a tired smile. She should be at home in bed, not worried about him. Leonard actually felt bad that he was messing with her sleep. "Look, I'll get Joanna to school and then I'll come back and make Grandma Kirk's chicken noodle soup, which you will eat because you're stubborn but not stupid and it's awesome. You're gonna take a shower, drink lots of fluids and you're gonna rest. Arlene said she'll pick Joanna up from school and Sam will drop her off after dinner and stick around to keep an eye on you both when I go to work. So, you're stuck with us. Unless you want Gaila to come over here."

"She never stops talking," he groaned.

"She's been my friend my whole life, I'm well aware of that fact," she said with a smile. "Those are your options, Bones. It's either me or her."

"Fine, you can stay. Damn woman," Leonard grumbled.

"You'll thank me later. Unlike you, I take food as payment for my services," Jim smiled. He rolled his eyes. "I'm gonna go get Joanna ready for school. You need anything just let me know."

"Yea, yea…"

* * *

"You did my dishes. And folded my laundry," Leonard said when he stumbled into the kitchen a little after ten in the morning. Not that he and Joanna made a big mess or anything, he just didn't feel like dealing with any of it the night before. Leonard was not expecting the clean kitchen or the laundry basket of folded clothes when he ventured downstairs.

"Also remade your bed and tossed your linens in the wash while you were in the shower. It's not a big deal, stuff needed done so I did it," Jim said as he sat down in one of the chairs at his kitchen table. "You hungry?"

"Starving. How was Jo this morning?"

"She was good. Tried to talk me into giving her ice cream for breakfast. She settled for pancakes."

"That's my girl," he chuckled as Jim put a bowl of soup and a glass of water in front of him. The steam from the soup hit his face and Leonard might've made a noise before slowly digging in. "This is really good."

"Told you it was but you were kinda out of it when I got here this morning," she smiled. "You want tea?"

"I have tea?"

"Yes," Jim smiled. Since when did he have tea? Or the stuff for homemade chicken soup? "I stopped by the store after I took Jo to school." He gave her a look. "You said that out loud."

"Oh." Leonard nodded as he ate before he raised an eyebrow, "You didn't go home. Did you?"

"Not yet. How'd you know that?"

"You're wearing my shirt." Even though it was big on her, the light blue dress shirt, with the sleeves rolled up and the just the right number of buttons open at the top, seemed to suit her perfectly. He was tempted to give her all his shirts just to see what they'd look like on her lean frame.

"Mine is in with your sheets. You kinda puked on me a couple hours ago," Jim smiled as she sat a cup of green tea in front of him. "I figured you would prefer if I didn't walk around your house topless."

"I don't know, that might make me feel better," he chuckled.

"You're lucky, Bones, but you ain't that lucky," Jim laughed, her eyes sparkling with she did.

"You know, that's what I thought when I got married."

"How so?" she asked as she sat in the chair on his right side with her own tea.

"I couldn't believe I ended up with that smart and beautiful woman. I kept thinking that I can't be that lucky. Guess I was wrong."

"Not from where I'm sitting," Jim smiled.

"You call getting divorced and moving to the Midwest lucky?"

"No. The other part though, that's lucky. Every day, you wake up and that beautiful little girl gives you one of her sleepy smiles and it's like… the sun is out of a job. And every night, after you put her to bed, you watch her sleep and you think that nothing can ever beat that. Then, the next morning, she smiles at you again. You teach her. You protect her. You love her. And what's more, she knows it. One day, Joanna will grow up and she'll meet someone and she'll know what love means because you taught it to her. She'll be strong because you encourage her to be. When that woman you raised puts your first grandchild in your arms, you'll feel like the luckiest man in the universe. Your ex-wife is a bitch but she gave you Joanna, then she walked away. As far as I'm concerned, you were too good for her, not the other way around."

"That's how you see it?" Leonard asked. Jim didn't say anything, she just shrugged and moved to take his empty bowl. "Is that why you don't talk to your mother? You think she didn't protect you."

"We're not talking about me."

"Only because you dodge the question every time I bring it up. So, how 'bout this, you tell me what the deal is and I'll stop asking?"

"She didn't protect me. That one day doesn't fix almost six years of abuse. Denying it for the last decade and a half afterwards just adds insult to injury. Sometimes I feel like I'm losing my mind. Like the last twenty years is all in my head. If it wasn't for Sam… How sick is it that our shared memories are the only reason I haven't just given up?"

"It's not sick at all," he told her. A thought crossed his mind when he looked at her. "I probably know the answer to this but I'm gonna ask anyway. Did you see someone after everything happened with your step-dad?" Jim raised an eyebrow. "Didn't think so."

"My mother wanted it to go away. She pretends like he didn't beat the crap out of us all the time. Like the broken bones and bruises were all in my imagination. You honestly think she was gonna let me talk to a shrink?"

"No, I suppose not. The sheriff knows, right?"

"Of course he does," she sighed. "He's the one who talked my mother into letting me take that house. He even helped me with some of the repairs. I never felt safe with my mother, which is fucked up because I watch her with Sam and then Peter and I wonder why she was never like that with me. She was depressed after my father died and she would forget about me. Then she married that _man_. It's why I've lived alone, aches away from everyone and everything, since I was a teenager. Hell, the first time I ever got a good night's sleep, it was a week after my eighteenth birthday. There was fresh snow on the ground outside. I crawled into bed and I just felt… safe. I drifted right to sleep not scared out of my mind."

"You think she doesn't know any of this?"

"If she does, she's pretending that she doesn't and I'm not sure which pisses me off more," she sighed. "Okay, you have to stop doing that."

"Doing what?" Leonard asked. "I didn't do anything."

"You just… Every time I'm around you I have a sudden urge to spill my guts. I mean, there are people I've known for years who don't know any of this stuff. You're in town for a month and a half and you know my deepest, darkest secrets."

"It's a gift," he smiled, then yawned.

"Come on. Back to bed with you," Jim chuckled. She refilled his glass of water, grabbed his tea and handed him a bottle of Gatorade before she pushed him towards the stairs.

"Are you gonna sleep any?" Leonard asked as they headed up to his room. She had to be back at work at six, which meant she had to sleep at some point.

"Might," she sighed. "Wouldn't be the first time I've gone without sleep and I'm sure it won't be the last."

* * *

"Stubborn woman," Leonard muttered to himself a just before two. When he woke up, the house was eerily quiet. Leonard figured out why when he spotted Jim passed out in the chair in his bedroom, her feet propped up on his bed. "Idiot's gonna hurt her neck."

"I can hear you," she muttered.

"Oh, can you? Then maybe you should find somewhere else to sleep," he pointed out.

"That couch is worse than this chair and I'm not taking your germs into Joanna's room."

"You need real sleep, Jim."

"I'll be fine," she sighed.

"Did you know that driving while exhausted is just as bad as driving drunk. If you're planning on getting behind the wheel later, you need to sleep. Don't make me call the sheriff and tell him that his favorite person isn't sleeping."

"Fine, smartass, move over," Jim said, getting up from the chair, putting her phone on the nightstand and lying beside him on the bed.

"You're gonna get sick," Leonard told her. His heart was going a million miles an hour. When was the last time a beautiful woman was in bed with him? A beautiful woman that he may or may not have had a few slightly inappropriate dreams about, no less?

"I've been here all day and you threw up on me, I'm probably a lost cause anyway," she mumbled. "Go back to sleep."

"You're really gonna sleep in my bed?"

"You were the one complaining about me sleeping in that chair, which isn't the worse place I've ever slept, just so you know. Now, go back to sleep, Bonesy."

She had a very valid point. He wasn't going to win this one and he knew it. Leonard got comfortable, closed his eyes and went back to sleep.


	7. Chapter 7

"Knock knock," Leonard said from the doorway to Jim's office.

She smiled, "Who's there?"

"Do ya?"

"'Do ya' who?" Jim asked.

"Do ya like pizza?" he smiled.

"I love pizza."

"Good. Pepperoni okay?" Leonard asked as he walked into the room.

"It's always okay. What's all this for?"

"I believe I owe you payment for services rendered."

"You remember that?"

"Yes. Parts of the other day are fuzzy but I remember some things... and that conversation we had is very clear. This is my way of saying thank you," Leonard told her.

"For what?" Jim raised an eyebrow and looked up from her computer.

"Seriously?" he chuckled. "I'm usually the one who takes care of people when they get sick and I can't tell you the last time somebody did that for me. And your grandmother's soup is almost worth getting sick for. So, thank you."

"You are welcome. You know, you're really sweet when you wanna be," she smiled.

"Don't tell anybody that. I gotta reputation to protect," Leonard said as they both grabbed a slice.

"Of course, Doctor Grumpy," Jim chuckled as he looked around her office.

"They do not call me that," his gaze returning to her. She just nodded with a smirk on her face. "Well, maybe they'll think twice before doing dumb stuff. I had a guy that burned off his eyebrows and, instead of going to the ER, he scheduled an appointment with me two days later."

"They were just singed. Besides, Scotty's always been an interesting fella," she smiled.

"Of course you know him."

"I know everybody, including Montgomery Scott," Jim smiled. "He was an engineering professor who burned down part of a lab a few years ago and got canned. Nobody would hire him, so he opened a garage. Considering that this town needed one that wasn't gouging the hell outta us, it was a good thing. He fixes all kinds of stuff for whatever you can pay him and does experiments in his spare time. One time, he got paid in chickens. He still has 'em, made a coop and everything. How that man finds original parts for my car is some kind of magic I've never seen before."

"He's crazy."

"A little bit but he's good people so…" she said, letting the sentence drop. "I'm guessing you don't have a ton of patients today."

"None. I had one scheduled but they cancelled so Boyce let us have the day off. Halloween is tomorrow so I bet every sick kid in the county is pretending not to be sick just to enjoy the festivities. I can't wait until Friday. I'm gonna be elbows deep in it."

"Thankfully, I have Friday off," Jim smiled. "Maybe I'll bring you lunch. Maybe."

"Well, maybe I have something to look forward to," Leonard chuckled just as there was a knock on the door frame.

"Yea, Rand?" Jim asked.

"We just got a call about a body out by the junction," the other blonde said. "I think it's Doctor Wallace."

"Text me the details," Jim said before she looked at him.

"Doctor Wallace?"

"Janet. She's not... wasn't a medical doctor. She was a scientist," she told him with a sigh. A look that he couldn't place crossed her features. "She's too young and healthy for it to be natural."

"We don't have a murderer on our hands, do we?"

"Might. Won't know until I get there. Wanna come?" she asked.

"Am I allowed?"

"I'm inviting you, so yea," Jim smiled. "You know you want to, Doctor McCoy."

"I got nothing better to do," he shrugged.

"That's the spirit."

* * *

"Who found her?" Jim asked Deputy Hendorff when they got to a house out in the middle of nowhere.

"Her son, Theo junior," Hendorff said, motioning towards a guy, who was little more than a teenager, sitting on the stairs. "She calls him every day like clockwork but she missed the last two days, so he came out here to check on her. He lives up at Mount Mercy."

"Mount Mercy?" Leonard looked at Jim.

"It's a Catholic liberal arts university in Cedar Rapids," Jim answered.

"I gotta warn ya, it ain't pretty," Hendorff told them. Leonard looked at the big guy and noticed that he was a little green around the gills. "Seeing Misses W like that..."

"You should stay out here with Theo, Greg," Jim said. "Sheriff in there?"

"Yea. Mitchell too," Hendorff told her.

"This day just keeps getting better and better," she sighed.

"Friend of yours?" Leonard asked.

"He's Gaila's ex. We don't like him very much. With only four of us on duty at a time, I can't actually avoid him but I try," Jim said. "The only reason he has a job with the department is because he's annoyingly good at what he does."

"I knew you loved me, Jim," a tall, handsome man with light brown hair said with a smile when Jim and Leonard walked into the small house.

"I tolerate you, Gary. There's a difference," she said as she scanned the room with her eyes and pulled on a pair of gloves. "Has she been moved?"

"Yea. The son said he rolled her over," Deputy Mitchell said. "Saw all the stab wounds."

Leonard looked at the body, "Why stab her?"

"Uh, to kill her, duh," Mitchell scoffed. "You're supposed to be a doctor."

"If he stabbed her to death, where's all the blood?" Leonard asked the other man. "This isn't even a quart. Which means…

"Her heart wasn't beating. Stab wounds are post mortem," Jim nodded.

"Correct as usual, Miss Kirk," Leonard said to his friend as they knelt over the body of a blonde woman with striking similarities to Jim. Even their eye color was the same. It was almost uncanny. While he was on the subject of her eyes, there were a bunch of tiny red dots on her eyeballs and eyelids. "She's got petechiae."

"What's that mean?" Mitchell asked.

"Means that pressure caused her blood vessels to burst in her face. He strangled her to death," Jim answered. "There's a ligature mark around her neck. I bet my next paycheck that the pattern matches the ropes on the porch."

"Don't take that bet, Doc," Gary said. "She has a sixth sense about this stuff."

"Can I…?" Leonard reached over for Jim's arm, he wasn't wearing gloves and he doubted they'd want him to touch anything. Jim let him use her hand to move the woman's arm. "He tied her up after she tried to fight him off. Look at her hands." The women had bruised knuckles and broken fingernails, her wrists were raw.

"She put up one hell of a fight," Sheriff Pike sighed. "That's not the worst of it. The son covered her with the blanket."

"Jesus," Jim muttered as she looked under the blanket. "He mutilated her." There were cuts all over Misses Wallace's thighs and pelvic area. Leonard watched as Jim took in the myriad of cuts and bruises all over this woman's body. "This is overkill… unless he got off on it. Junior said he hasn't talked to her in two days, right?"

"Yea, why?" Mitchell asked.

"She hasn't started to decay yet," Leonard said. "She's still in rigor mortis."

"Meaning she's only been dead a day, tops," Jim added. "He had her here for a while before he killed her."

Leonard raised an eyebrow, "Okay, I gotta ask. How'd you know that?"

"One of the first things I did when I became sheriff was send Jim to advanced forensics courses with FLETC," Pike answered. "Figured if I only have one investigator, I might as well make sure she has all the training I can get her."

"FLETC?" Leonard looked at Jim.

"Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers. It's where a good chunk of federal agents get their federal agent training. It's also like cop college for the rest of us. I even got credits," she sighed before looking up at Pike. "We should have the M.E. run a rape kit but this guy was careful, I doubt there will be any usable DNA."

"So, don't get my hopes up. Got it," Pike said. "Mitchell, bag everything. Get prints and DNA from the son so we can rule him out. Jim…"

"I'll start digging into their background to put together victimology," Jim sighed. "I don't know, Chris. This was made to look personal but I don't think it was. At least… I don't think it's her. Janet's always been a loner, even before Theo died. This… feels like it might be a message to someone else. I doubt she knew the person who did this to her. We need to figure out why he picked her before he goes after someone else. I'll see if I can find anyone who's passed through the area in the last two weeks or so and work my way out."

"That's my girl," Pike nodded. "Let's get to work."

* * *

"You knew her, didn't you?" Leonard said when he stopped by Jim's house two days after Janet Wallace's body was found. Jim was sitting on her floor with a laptop, surrounded by paperwork. Leonard spotted a picture of the deceased woman and, if he thought they looked similar before, he was almost certain that they could actually be related now.

"Wallace is her married name, Janet was a Kirk, one of my father's younger cousins. She was only eleven years older than me. The science teacher at the high school in Washington, near the station, for a while. When her husband died last year, she kinda shut everyone out. Only a handful of people have seen her in the last twelve months but she was still family," Jim said.

"It that hard?" he asked. Leonard couldn't imagine having to figure out what happened to a dead relative. He's treated his fair share of family members but it was never anything this bad.

"Can be," she sighed. "I've pulled over family members. Broke up fights between brothers. Identified the bodies of people I've known my whole life but this... I can admit that this is different. Made harder by the fact that I got nothing I didn't already know. Nobody with a problem or a grudge against Jan. Everyone we talked to was understandably shocked."

"So, you were right, it wasn't personal as far as she was concerned," Leonard sighed.

"Doesn't look like it. Which means he picked her for another reason. I just have to figure out what that reason is before he kills someone else. Yay me."

"You're sure it's a man?"

"Like ninety-five percent sure," she sighed, "I'm assuming it's a man based on the condition we found her body in. I'm not ruling out the possibility that it might actually be a woman. You're getting a kick out of this."

"I am not," Leonard muttered. Jim raised an eyebrow. "Granted, I don't like dead bodies because it's my job to prevent people from dying. I do, however, like puzzles and this is a big puzzle."

"This one is missing too many pieces," Jim groaned as she closed the computer and sat it on the table. "It's like someone dumped out half the box and asked me to solve the rest."

"You'll figure it out."

"That's debatable. I'm at a dead end," she sighed.

"It's only been two days and you need to take a break," he told her.

"Probably."

"Not probably. It's your day off and I bet you spent it buried in this all day. You're still in your pajamas," Leonard said. Jim opened her mouth to argue but she must've thought better of it, because she didn't say anything. "That's what I thought. I'm gonna go grab Jo from your brother, you are gonna take a quick shower, get dressed and meet me at my house."

"Am I?"

"Yes. You gotta eat and I have it on good authority that you like spaghetti and meatballs, which is what's for dinner."

"Who told you that? Gaila."

"I'm not revealing my sources. If you're not at my house in half an hour, I'll have the sheriff drag you over there."

"What makes you think he would?" Jim asked, defiant as ever.

"Because I'm gonna tell him that you didn't eat today."

"But I did eat."

"Pretzels and coffee don't count."

"I hate you," she smiled.

"No you don't. Thirty minutes, Jim," he told her.

"You're lucky I think your hotness trumps how annoying you are."


	8. Chapter 8

"Bones," Jim whispered against his ear.

"What are you doing?" he asked as she slid her hand under his shirt, pressing kisses along the back of his neck while her hands roamed his skin.

"I'm not doing anything," she chuckled.

"You're in my bed," Leonard sighed.

"Only in your dreams, Bonesy."

"What?"

"You're still asleep, Bones," Jim told him. "Wake up."

Leonard rolled over and found himself alone, his phone ringing on the nightstand. "Holy shit. I gotta stop doing that." Like he had any control over his dreams. The ringing stopped for a second before it started again. He grabbed the device that forced him to wake up earlier than necessary on a Saturday morning. "Hello." For a long moment, there was silence. "Hello."

"Len," came the voice of his ex-wife. If someone had told him a year ago that the mere sound of her voice would piss him off, he wouldn't have believed it but now… well, they would've been right.

"What do you want?" he asked, all the pleasant feelings that he had coursing through his veins was instantly gone. He didn't want to talk to her but since she was the mother of his child, he could try to be civil, if only Joanna's sake.

"I need to see you," she told him.

"Not gonna happen," Leonard said.

"I know you're mad, Len…"

"No, I'm not," he half-lied. "I was but I have more important things to worry about than who you're sleeping with. So, you can either tell me what you want over the phone or you can hang up and leave me alone."

"Look, I just need to talk to you, face-to-face," Jocelyn said. "There are some things I need to say."

"And I'm supposed to what, hop on a plane to see you so that you can have some kind of absolution? I have things to do," he told her. He also didn't want to see her but telling her that would just piss her off and he didn't feel like dealing with that.

"You're not in Georgia?"

"No. Your little stunt at the hospital cost me more than my job. I got blacklisted. I had to take a position in the Midwest. We moved in September. You would know that if you called your daughter. You remember her, right? Long brown hair, hazel eyes, looks like us?" Leonard asked. So maybe he was a little more pissed off than he'd like to admit.

"Of course I remember her. If you want, I can pay child support," she offered.

"Don't. She's fine and we don't need anything from you."

"I still need to see you. The way we left things…"

"Is the way you wanted to leave them. I'm not gonna bend over backwards because you suddenly feel guilty that you threw away a dozen years for Clay fucking Treadway. If you really want to talk to me in person, you can wait until next month. I might, _might_ , go home for Christmas."

"And if you don't?"

"Then I don't. It's none of your business either way," he told her. "Look, I gotta go."

"Okay," Jocelyn said. "I really didn't mean for any of this go the way it did."

"Nothing we can do about it now. Bye, Lyn."

"Bye," she said before the call disconnected.

"Are you gonna stand out there all morning?" Leonard asked with a smile.

"What did she want?" Joanna asked as she climbed onto his bed and sat next to his feet.

"I don't know. She said she needed to talk but she'd only do it in person," he said. Leonard decided that he wasn't going to lie to Joanna about her mother. He wasn't going to talk crap about her like so many other divorced parents do either. Joanna was smarter than her age implies and he knew that she knew what was going on.

"Good luck with that one," his daughter chuckled.

"That's more or less what I said."

"I don't know why she thinks she rules the world but she doesn't. She's such a bitch," the eight-year-old said.

"Language."

"I'm not wrong," she pointed out.

"No. Just watch your word choices," Leonard told her. Joanna nodded. "So, what are we doing today?"

"Well, we could watch movies and hang out. There's laundry but we can do that while the movies are on. And Miss Jim gave me the secret to her pancakes, so we're making those for breakfast."

"So, what's the secret?"

"I have to ask her if I can tell you," Joanna smiled. "Can I call her?"

He handed his daughter his phone. She didn't bother looking in his contact list, she knew Jim's number off the top of her head, which was actually comforting. If something ever happened to him, she knew who to call. Leonard smiled, "She's at work, so she might not answer right away."

"Yea, Bones?" Jim asked just as Joanna turned on the speaker function. His daughter gave him a look like he should've known that Jim would answer his calls on the first ring.

"It's Joanna, Miss Jim."

"The young Miss McCoy, how can I be of assistance this beautiful morning? Your dad's not sick again, is he?" Jim asked, he could hear the smile in her voice.

"No, he's fine. As a matter of fact, daddy asked for your secret pancake recipe," Joanna said.

"I did not. You mentioned it and I can't make 'em if I don't know what the trick is," he said.

"Hmm. Can we trust him, Miss McCoy?" Jim asked.

"I think we can. He's very trustworthy," his daughter said with a bright smile.

"Then you may bestow upon him the secret of Jim's world famous pancakes," Jim chuckled. "I gotta get back to work, sweetie."

"Okay. Be safe, Miss Jim," Jo said.

"Always. Later, Doctor and Miss McCoy."

"Bye, Miss Jim," Leonard and Joanna said in unison before hanging up the phone.

"Fold the orange zest from one orange into the batter," Joanna told him.

"That's the secret?" he chuckled.

"Yep. She said it's a life changer and she was right."

"You're eight, what do you know about life changing?" Leonard asked his daughter.

"I'm young in age and old in spirit. I thought you knew that already."

* * *

"Are you gonna go see her?" Jim asked. Joanna asked if she could see where Jim works, so the sheriff was showing her around the station while Jim hid the pictures and reports from the Wallace murder. As much as he didn't want to have this conversation, it was more comfortable than thinking about some of the other things on his mind.

"Why should I? She wanted out, she got out. I shouldn't have to run when she wants something. I mean, I would've run if she asked me to before but now… She doesn't own me."

"You sure about that?"

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" he asked.

"Hear me out before you say anything," she said. He gave her a nod. "You were together for eleven… twelve years. There's a part of you, all be it a very small part, that still loves her. It's not something that you just turn off. Maybe you need to see her. Not because she wants you to but because the only way you can get any closure on the whole thing is by saying to her what you need to say. How you feel about her is not going away simply because you're ignoring it."

"I don't love her. Not anymore."

"Liar. She was your wife, Bones. She's the mother of your child. You have some love for her. That's why it hurts so damn much," Jim smiled. "You know I'm right."

"I don't have to like it," Leonard grumbled. How the hell did she know all that? Was it written on his face or something?

"I never said you did."

"What about Jo? I mean, cheating on me was bad enough but she practically abandoned Jo and I'm not keen on forcing my little girl to see her."

"I never said that either. Jo's a smart kid, ask her what she wants to do. If she doesn't want to go with you, she can stay with me."

"You'd do that?"

"Of course I would. We're talking about me getting to hang out with Joanna. We'll watch movies and paint our toes and plot her world domination. Like I would pass that up."

* * *

"Where's Joanna?" his mother asked when he walked into his childhood home.

After thinking about it for a few days, he decided that he should just bite the bullet and go to Georgia. It was going to bother him to no end if he didn't find out what was so important that his ex-wife had to see him in person.

"Hello to you too. It's Thursday, she's at school," he chuckled as dropped his bag inside the door.

"You left her alone?"

"I did no such thing. She's with a friend," Leonard said.

"What kind of friend?"

"The kind that's just a friend. A good friend but a friend none the less," he smiled. "Jo's fine. She said she'll call you when she gets home from school."

"Why didn't you bring her?"

"She didn't want to come and I wasn't gonna make her. This is hard enough on her and right now, I think forcing her to talk to Lyn isn't gonna help. When Jo's ready to talk about her mother, or to her mother, then she can. Now, can I have a hug from my mama, or what?"

"Hi," she smiled and pulled him into her arms. "You look well."

"Were you expecting me not to?" he asked with a smile.

"Maybe a little."

"That hurts my feelings, mama," Leonard chuckled. "I'm good. I like where I work. I have friends. Jo's happy."

"Come sit and tell me about it," his mother ordered.

"Yes, ma'am."

* * *

"I can't believe you're actually here," Jocelyn said from across the table at a café near their old house. He decided that meeting her on neutral ground was the best bet. That and his mother would probably hurt his ex-wife if Lyn even thought about showing up at the house.

Leonard stared at the woman he used to love more than life itself and he could admit that she looked good. Her long dark hair was pulled out of her face, she was wearing just the barest amount of makeup on her flawless skin. It was almost unfair how good she looked. Some part of him wanted her to look like crap for the nine months of bullshit she put him through before he moved, as petty as it sounds.

"You needed to talk, talk," Leonard said after a minute.

"You don't have to be mean."

"You don't have to pretend to be nice," he pointed out. They sat in silence for another long moment, just staring at each other.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry about what I did," she told him.

"Which part? The part where you were unhappy but didn't say anything? The part where you fucked another man in my bed? The part where you blamed it all on my dead father and our child? The part where you caused so much trouble at the hospital that I lost my job? The part where you tried to take everything that wasn't nailed down? Or the part where you washed your hands of our daughter? You're gonna have to be specific, Lyn."

She stared at him for a minute with those big brown eyes that used to drive him crazy before her features softened. "You're right. I did a lot of fucked up things. And I know that nothing I say will fix that but I am sorry. I don't know where it all got… When did this become us? We used to talk all the time and then we just… didn't. I don't know where that happened."

"After my father died, I buried myself in work and only came up for air when Joanna needed me. You… you stopped coming home, at least mentally. Your head was more at work than mine was. I should've said something but I was grieving and I didn't notice until it was too late. The space between us just grew. Now here we are," Leonard sighed.

"It was good, the first decade. It was good, right?" Jocelyn smiled.

"Yea, it was. Sometimes I miss it. I think maybe, just maybe, we could go back there. Then I remember what happened and the nostalgia's gone."

Damn Jim. She was fucking right and it annoyed the hell out of him. All the time she spent talking to him and Leonard didn't realize that she was reading him as much as he was reading her until right now. As far as his blonde friend was concerned, he might as well be an open book. There is a part of him, a tiny part, that does, and will more than likely always, love Jocelyn in some way. He'd been in denial about it before but sitting here with her made that feeling almost impossible to ignore. Then Leonard reminded himself about what Jocelyn did to Jo and the warm and fuzzy feeling went away.

"You don't call her. You haven't even asked about her," he said, she knew exactly who he's talking about.

"She's okay. I know she's okay because you wouldn't let her be anything else," she said.

"You don't even want to talk to her."

"Would she actually talk to me?"

"Probably not," Leonard admitted.

"I didn't just give up custody of her to be mean. She was always your little girl. I gave birth to Jo but anyone with eyes and half a brain knew who took care of her. I figured that giving up custody would be better than dragging her through a fight. I've worked too many cases where one parent rips the kids from the other and I didn't want that for her. I didn't want to keep you from her. I also know that you wouldn't keep her from me unless she asked. So, while it's true that Clay doesn't like kids, my decision had nothing to do with him and everything to do with her. You were always the better parent. I took enough from you, I wasn't gonna take that too."

"I'll tell her that but I'm not promising that it'll help," he shrugged.

"I know. I messed up a lot of things and the two people loved more than anything got hurt the worst. I can apologize until I'm blue in the face but it wouldn't make much of a difference. All I can do is let you live your lives in peace and hope that we can at least be civil with each other."

"You have no idea how much I want to yell at you right now."

"I do. You're pissed, rightfully so, and you wanna yell but you won't. You're too much of a gentleman. Something I took for granted."

"You weren't the only one who took things for granted. I wasn't paying attention."

"You tried to. You just couldn't do everything on your own. I was so wrapped up in myself… that's not on you. Don't think for one second that it was."

"I'll try," Leonard shrugged.

"I guess that's better than nothing. How is she?"

He smiled, "She's good. She uh... Well, she learned how to milk a cow."

"No way."

"I didn't believe it either but there are pictures."


	9. Chapter 9

"What are you doing?" Leonard asked Jim when he walked into her house. He'd give her some crap about never locking the door but he was sure she had more weapons in this place than she let on.

"Research on post mortem mutilation. Looking into Janet didn't get me anywhere so I'm trying to see if I can figure this guy out from the crime itself," she told him. "Don't worry, Jo's not here."

"Where is she?"

"She's with Arlene. Nancy is giving birth and Joanna is helping with the delivery."

"Wait. My baby is helping a cow deliver a baby?"

"Yes. Sam's recording it if you want to see. I think you might have a vet on your hands."

"Huh. Vets are still doctors, that works for me," he smiled. Leonard never tried to talk Joanna into being anything she didn't want but he hoped, like his father, that she followed his footsteps.

"So, how was it?"

"Other than getting airsick, it was okay. You were right."

"Ooo, say that again. I was what?"

Leonard groaned, "You were right."

"I usually am," Jim smiled. "You guys bury the hatchet?"

"Sorta. She's not as horrible as I remember her to be but we're not gonna be close or anything. We'll talk and try to keep each other in the loop about anything that might effect Joanna, though. I got some answers I needed and some stuff off my chest. It was better than expected. I told her about you," he shrugged as he sat next to her on the couch.

"Really?" she asked, closing her laptop and giving him her full attention. "This I gotta hear."

"It wasn't that big of a deal."

"You told your ex-wife about the hot blonde chick who hangs out with you and your daughter and you think it's not a big deal. That's adorable. Try again."

"She asked about where Joanna was if I was in Georgia without her. So, I told her about you. Lyn said it was good that I… had a friend," Leonard said. It was one hell of a lie. What Jocelyn actually told him was that Jim must be something special because he had no problem leaving Joanna in Jim's care and the way he smiled when he talked about her reminded Jocelyn of when they were together. He was not, under any circumstances, telling Jim that.

"You're such a horrible liar," she smiled.

"I am not."

"You are but I'm not gonna force you to tell me what she said."

"Thanks… I think. How was Jo?"

"Great. She did her homework and ate her veggies. Helped with the chores. She was the perfect guest. If you ever wanna get rid of her for a day, let me know and I'll take her," Jim smiled.

"You're trying to keep my kid."

"Of course I am, she's cooler than you," she chuckled. Leonard just looked at her. "That was a joke… mostly."

"I know. It's just…" The idea of Jim taking care of Joanna made him happy and he realized how easy it would be, the three of them. "Nothing. Never mind."

"If you say so," Jim smiled. "I uh… I haven't had dinner yet. You wanna stay?"

"Might as well. I bet Arlene already fed Jo," he chuckled.

"You would be correct. They ate already but I've been busy with this."

"You work too much," Leonard sighed.

"Never really had a reason not to work a lot. I mean, it's just me. Nobody cares if I'm not home because nobody's here."

"We're gonna have to change that," he told her.

"Are we?" she asked with a small smile.

"Yes, we are."

* * *

"Yes, you can borrow that skirt," Gaila said into the phone. "I gotta go. I'm still at work. Tell me what happens later." She laughed. "Okay. I'll talk to you then."

"One of your friends have a hot date tonight?" Leonard asked as he cleared his last chart.

"Jim. She's having dinner with this guy and she needed something to wear, so she's at my house looking," the redhead told him.

"Wait. Jim has a date?" he gave her a look.

"Yes. You're not mad, are you?"

"No, I'm fine. Why would I be mad? She's a good person who deserves every happiness in the universe," Leonard said around the gravel in his throat. He was not jealous. Maybe.

"Your voice is deeper," Gaila smiled.

"Does that sometimes," he shrugged.

"You're jealous."

"No, I'm not. She's my friend."

"Your friend that you like," the redhead pointed out. He raised an eyebrow. "Please, Stevie Wonder can see that you got a thing for her. What I haven't figured out is why you haven't gone for it."

"She's my annoyingly brilliant friend who works too much and I just got divorced."

"It's been eight or nine months, right? You need to have some fun before you end up old and alone, man."

"Should I really be taking dating advice from you?" Leonard asked with a playful smile. "Look, I'm fine. If anyone should go on a date, it's Jim. She needs to… get out a little." He said that as calmly as he could manage. Gaila gave him a look before she went back to getting the clinic ready to close up for the night.

"You're jealous," Gaila repeated.

"No, I'm not," he told her. "I'm not jealous at all."

* * *

"It's fine. I'm fine. We're fine. Who the fuck am I trying to kid? It's not fine," Leonard muttered to himself after Joanna went to bed.

Okay, he was a little jealous. Maybe more than a little jealous.

Who the hell was this person who swooped in on his Jim? She's his friend and he likes her and Joanna likes her and this new guy can't have her. Maybe he should track this guy down and threaten the hell out of him. Or call the sheriff and have him run a background check. He really should've asked Gaila to tell him who the guy was. Leonard was running all kinds of things through his head when there was a knock on his door. Who would be knocking at ten o'clock at night? He opened it to find his blonde, blue-eyed friend standing on his porch.

"Sup, Bones."

"What are you doing here?" Leonard asked around the lump in his throat. She was here. Why was she here?

"You gonna let me in? It's kinda cold and I don't say that very often."

"You didn't answer my question. Aren't you supposed to be on a date?" he asked, moving out of the way so that she could walk into the house. She gave him a look. "Gaila told me."

"I was on a date. It sucked. I decided that I would have more fun bothering you," she smiled. "You don't mind, do you?"

"How do you know I didn't have plans?"

"Dude, you're watching Netflix."

"You can stay," Leonard said. Jim hung her coat next to his before plopping down on his couch and stealing his beer. "Wanna talk about it?"

"Not really. It was that bad," Jim sighed before downing half of his beer. "What's wrong with me? Don't answer that."

"I don't think there's anything wrong with you, darlin'," he told her. She rolled her eyes. "I'm serious. I think that you are a special kind of woman and you need someone who understands that. Not… whoever this guy was."

"Benjamin Finney. He's the new guy who works in the records department down at the county clerk's office," she said before taking another sip of beer. Leonard knew he wasn't getting it back, so he grabbed a new one and sat down next to her. "He was okay until we starting talking about our jobs. He got that look that everyone gets when they realize that the Jim Kirk who is the second in command of the sheriff's department is also a pretty blonde girl."

"That's not your fault, Jim."

"Isn't it. I picked my job. I can't help that I'm really good at it. And…"

"You shouldn't have to apologize for it. Not to anybody," Leonard told her.

"Yea. I guess," she sighed.

"Hey, look at me," he said. When Jim didn't look at him, he sat on the coffee table and held her face in his hand. "You are… What's the word you always use? Awesome. You are awesome. One day, you will find someone to be awesome with you." And it will probably kill him but as long as she's happy, he'll let it go.

"You think I'm awesome?"

"You know you are. This Finney guy can go fuck himself if he doesn't see it."

"Careful, you're being sweet again. Might have to get you checked out," Jim smiled.

"You won't tell anyone."

"True. Can't have 'em all knowing that you aren't actually a jerk," she chuckled.

"Hey!" Leonard gave her a look. "I'm not a jerk." Jim raised an eyebrow. "I just don't like when people do stupid stuff."

"If you say so," Jim smiled. They sat like that for a minute before she sighed. "Your hand is warm."

"Your face is cold." And smooth and slightly flushed and smooth. 'Focus, Leonard.' "Are you okay now?"

"For the moment. Thank you."

"Anytime." He reluctantly let his hand drop.

"So," she smiled, "what were you watching before I showed up?"

"X-Files," Leonard told her. He was keeping the whole 'freaking out because she was on a date' thing to himself.

"No way. Are you a Mulder or a Scully?" Jim gave him an assessing look.

"What do you think?"

"Definitely a Scully. All skeptical and non-believing."

"Hey, I believe in some things," he chuckled.

"Uh huh. You believe in aliens and UFOs?" she asked.

"Used to. Believe it or not, I was once a teenage boy," Leonard smiled.

"Now, you're an old man."

"I'm only six years older than you. That doesn't make me old."

"If you say so," Jim smiled.

"Shut up. You wanna watch a couple of these with me or not?"

"Of course I would. You can't be Scully without a Mulder."

* * *

"Was your date fun, Miss Jim?" Leonard heard his daughter ask in the kitchen.

"It was okay," Jim said, Leonard could hear the sadness in her voice but he knew her well enough to know that she was probably smiling for Jo. "Ben is a nice man but not the one for me."

"That's because he's not daddy," Joanna declared. Leonard held his breath, waiting for Jim's response.

"Your dad is pretty great but he's not looking to date anyone right now," Jim said.

"But he should take you on a date. Or you could ask him."

"That's up to him. I think he has some stuff to work through with himself and he doesn't need me to get in the way."

"But he's happy. I just want him to stay happy. He used to be so sad and being around you… I've never seen him smile the way he does when you're here. And he laughs all the time, he never used to do that," his daughter said. He didn't realize that that's what Joanna saw. No wonder she was always trying to hook him up with Jim.

"Well, I'm not going anywhere," Jim told Jo. "I'll always be here for him and for you. Besides, I'm pretty sure that the person who makes him happy the most is you."

"You think?" Joanna asked.

"Of course I do," Jim said. "Would I lie to you?"

"No," Jo giggled. "You know he likes you, right?" His kid was such a traitor.

"I know. I like him too but don't tell him I said that. His ego doesn't need a boost," Jim chuckled. Wait, Jim likes him and he didn't even notice?

"Deal," Joanna said. The pair was quiet for a few minutes before Leonard heard his daughter again. "Miss Jim, do you think my mom misses me?"

"Of course she does," Jim said.

"She just left me."

"You wanna know what I think, Jo?" Jim asked. Joanna must've nodded because Jim started talking again. "I think your mom did the best she could do for you. You and your dad are really close, you would hate it if you didn't get to see him all the time, right?"

"I didn't look at it that way," Joanna said. "How do you know that?"

"My dad is dead but Mister Chris is kinda my dad and someone kept me from him when I was a kid," Jim said. "Made me really mad. All the time."

"You work with Mister Chris now," Joanna said. Leonard got up off the couch and leaned against the entryway to the kitchen. Jim glanced up at him for a millisecond before returning her focus to Jo.

"True but I didn't see him for eight long years. I was so mad that I did a lot of bad things and the only person who understood was Mister Chris," Jim smiled. "I think your mom doesn't want you to be like that. So, she decided to send you with your dad because he takes care of you and makes you happy. Don't be mad at her. I bet she misses you a lot. I know I would."

"Do you think my dad would let me call her? You know, just to check on her," Joanna asked.

"I think that could be arranged," Leonard smiled. "Good morning, ladies."

"Morning, Daddy!" Joanna jumped up and gave him a hug, which he returned with as more enthusiasm then he thought he had in him. "Miss Jim is here."

"Yea. We were watching TV last night and fell asleep," he told her. "Which reminds me, I need a new couch. That thing sucks."

"I told you," Jim chuckled. "Coffee?"

"I got it," Leonard said, walking around her. He did a double take. "You have to stop stealing my clothes."

"You saw that skirt I had on when I came over here. Your clothes are so much more comfortable. I think I might keep 'em," Jim said, give Joanna a wink.

"Anything but that shirt. It's my favorite shirt," he smiled. She had on a pair of his sweatpants and his gray Ole Miss t-shirt with the faded logo and a hole in one of the sleeves. The damn thing was older than Joanna but it was still his favorite. He never let Jocelyn wear it but it somehow looked perfect on Jim.

The blonde looked up at him, "Oh, you want me to take it off?"

"No. You can wear it. You just can't keep it," Leonard smiled as he poured himself a cup of coffee, willing himself not to think about her taking clothes off in his kitchen. Or anywhere else for that matter. "I plan on being buried in it."

"Write that down somewhere and I'll make it happen," Jim smiled.

"Yea?"

"Yea. It'll just go under the suit," Jim said. "Jo'll back me up."

"Yep. We'll make sure you get buried in your shirt. A long, long, long, long, long, long, long time from now," his daughter smiled.

"Thank you, ladies," he chuckled. "What are we doing today?"

"Buying you a couch," Jim rolled her shoulders. "I love Misses Thorne but that thing has got to go."


	10. Chapter 10

"It must be bad if you're calling me this early," Leonard mumbled into his phone.

"Don't take Joanna to school, just drop her off at the farm," Jim said, sounding more tired than he felt.

"What happened?" he asked, suddenly more alert.

"You know Elizabeth Dehner?"

"The school nurse?" Leonard asked. He met her once and found her to be pleasant despite the fact that she was clearly overworked.

"That's her. The principal found her body this morning in her office at the school. Safe to say, classes are cancelled for the day. They're coming up with something for tomorrow but I don't know what it is yet. The messages for the other parents are nice and diplomatic but I figured you'd want the truth."

"Damn," Leonard sighed. "You okay? You need anything?"

"Coffee or sleep. Neither of which I'll get any time soon. I'm still at the scene," she paused for a long moment. "Why Beth?" Leonard could hear the heartbreak in her voice.

"Is it the same as Janet?"

"More or less. Beth's in her clothes from Friday. I'm guessing he showed up before the building was closed for the weekend. Had her here for a whole day before he killed her."

"Then, I don't think it's about her. Like you said before, maybe it's about him," he said.

"Doesn't actually make me feel better. This guy apparently has a thing for blonde, blue eyed women, which means I fit the victimology… unless…" The idea that this guy could go after her actually scared the crap out of Leonard. She was all alone in that house and, given her schedule, she could be out there for days without anyone noticing. Well, almost anyone; he'd notice and so would her brother.

"Unless what?" Leonard sighed.

"Janet was a teacher and Beth was the school nurse," Jim paused. "Maybe he's looking for someone specific. Has to be. Thanks for the help, Bonesy. You're the best."

"No..." he said as the line went dead, "problem."

* * *

"How'd I know that you would still be here?" Leonard asked when he walked into Jim's office at just after eleven. His last patient was at ten and he didn't have another until two, so he decided to spend his lunch checking on Jim and found her right where he thought she'd be. "You're working nights, you should be at home and in bed."

"Too much to do," she said before pointing to his cup. "Is that coffee?"

"No, it's green tea. Here," he handed her the cup. "You should probably go home. You have to sleep at some point, Jim."

"I can just sleep in here," Jim said before taking a sip from his travel mug. Leonard was trying to cut back on coffee, that's the only reason he was drinking tea in the first place. Jim didn't seem to care. Caffeine is caffeine. "I've been looking though all the old records from the school."

"You think this guy was a student or a teacher?"

"Anything's possible. Spock is writing a program to help me narrow it down. Two schools within thirty-five minutes of each other is not a coincidence and given Jan and Beth's ages, that list isn't gonna be too long. Though it will include just about everyone I know."

"What's a Spock?"

Jim laughed, "I told you about my friend Spock. He teaches computer sciences up at U of I. He's named after some famous doctor or something like that. Miss Uhura's fiancé."

"I remember. I would like to meet the man who was lucky enough to land Miss Uhura," Leonard said. He was genuinely curious about the person his daughter's amazing teacher was going to marry.

"Then say hi," Jim smiled at something behind him. Leonard turned around and found himself looking up the other man. With straight black hair that was combed neatly out of his face and piercing dark brown eyes, Spock wasn't what he imagined based on the name and profession. He half expected a sweater vest and a pocket protector. "Doctor Leonard McCoy, this is Doctor Spock Grayson."

"Doctor," Spock nodded.

"Doctor," Leonard smiled as he offered his hand, the other man just raised an eyebrow. Jim snickered from her desk.

"You may call me Spock," the other man told him before walking over to Jim and handed her a USB. "I have altered the search perimeters that you gave me but the change was negligible."

"Every little bit helps," she nodded. "Anything I should know?"

"No. You are adept in your computer abilities. You will not find difficulty using the program. You may, however, find the results to be difficult as you are acquainted with a large percentage of people in the area," Spock said. Leonard raised an eyebrow but Jim shook her head.

"I know but it's a chance I gotta take. Thanks for helping with this," Jim smiled.

"Your thanks are unnecessary, Jim," Spock said. "Elizabeth and Janet did not deserve the fate that was ultimately bestowed upon them. I will do what is needed to help you find the person responsible."

"How's Ny?"

"She and Elizabeth were close. She does not exhibit any outward distress, however, her eyes... I see pain in them. I do not know how to fix it," Spock said.

"Just be there. Let her cry on you if she needs to," Jim smiled. "And let me know if you guys need anything."

"And you shall endeavor to do the same," Spock told her.

"I'm fine," she chuckled.

"You are not," both men said together.

"Okay. That's creepy as hell," she said. "Spock, go home and be with Ny."

"Of course, Jim. Doctor," the professor said before leaving the office.

"He's an odd duck. What's the deal?" Leonard asked.

"He's a genius with Asperger's," Jim sighed. "He's probably the smartest person I've ever met. He got his first doctorate before most people get their driver's licenses. He was working on some research in San Francisco when he met Ny out at UC Berkeley. When she decided to move here, he came with her. He takes some getting used to but nobody messes with him. Nyota's wrath isn't worth it."

"I'll bet," he chuckled.

"Can't really bother him when I'm around either, I've tazed people for less. Scotty's just as protective too. Oddly enough, they're really good friends."

"That's something I have to see." Scotty is crazy and messy. Spock seems too organized and proper to be friends with Scotty.

"You will. Gaila's birthday is next month. Arlene and Ny put something together."

"I wasn't invited," he told her.

"Uh, this is me inviting you. Just don't tell Gaila about it, supposed to be a surprise," Jim smiled, then yawned.

"I won't. You need to go home right now and get some sleep."

"You're worse than Sam."

"Don't make me call him and tell on you."

"You wouldn't," she said.

Leonard pulled his phone out of his pocket, "You sure about that?" Jim glared at him but she didn't say anything. "That's what I thought. You were supposed to be off almost six hours ago and you have to be back in six hours. Go home, get some sleep, take a shower, get something to eat and come back with your brain firing on all cylinders. Or, I will sedate you."

"You do know that I could just shoot you."

"Then you'd be stuck explaining to the sheriff why you shot Riverside's newest doctor and you'd have to do the paperwork," he pointed out.

"Might be worth it," Jim smiled.

"You wanna try your luck?" Leonard asked. She didn't say anything, she just glared at him. "Thought so. Go home."

"I hate you sometimes."

"No you don't. You think I'm awesome."

* * *

Leonard hadn't intended on going to Elizabeth Dehner's funeral, however, his daughter asked him to take her. When Thursday rolled around, he put on his suit and took his daughter to the church where, it turns out, the whole school and most of the town were. They signed the registry before Leonard looked around for a seat.

"You're with us, lad," Scotty said just as he grabbed Leonard's arm.

"Us?" the southerner looked at the crazy man.

"Me, Spock, Nyota, Gaila… a few other people. Come on," the Scot told him as he pulled Leonard -and Joanna- towards a pew. "Look who I found."

"Miss Uhura, I'm sorry about your friend," Joanna said before any of them could say anything. Then his little girl walked over and gave her teacher a big hug.

"Are you sure she's only eight?" came Jim's voice from behind him.

"I'm sure," he said, turning to look at her. "You okay?"

"That a real question?" she asked. Jim was investigating the murders of two people she knew. One was a friend and the other was a relative, both taking their toll on her.

"I suppose not," Leonard sighed. "You know that if you need anything…"

"The only thing I need is to catch this guy," she smiled.

"I'm sure that'll make us all happy," the Asian guy next to her said. Leonard raised an eyebrow.

"Doctor Leonard McCoy, Deputy Hikaru Sulu... err I guess should I say Sergeant Sulu now," Jim said, introducing the two men.

"Not yet," Sulu said. "Giotto has to retire first."

"Yea, I know. I'm the one who did the paperwork," she smiled.

"You're the one who was out of town?" Leonard asked. Jim had given him a list -all be it verbally- of every sworn officer in the sheriff's department and their handful of administrative personnel. Sulu was the only deputy Leonard hadn't met.

"Yep. Training in Virginia," Sulu nodded. "Came home to this mess."

"I would've gladly traded you, dude," Jim sighed. She was exhausted and Leonard knew it wasn't going to let up any time soon.

"You working today?" the southerner asked, his voice dropping to a whisper as Pastor Martin took his place at the pulpit.

"I'm on duty right now but Chris has me off tomorrow and the day after. Why?" she asked, leaning closer.

"I'll tell you later, just don't make any plans for tomorrow."

* * *

"You know, if I was a bad guy, I probably could've killed you by now," Leonard said from his spot laying on Jim's bed.

"If you weren't you, I would've shot you already," she mumbled. "There's a gun pointed at your head and you didn't know it." She pulled the weapon from under her pillow and sat it on the nightstand. "I heard your car when you drove up. Since you're the one always harping about my sleeping habits, this must be important. What do you want?"

"You to get up so we can leave," he told her.

"Leave?"

"We're going on a trip."

"Ha, that's funny." When he didn't say anything, she let out a groan. "Why?" Jim asked, her blue eyes opening as she did.

"Because you need a break and I figure the only way to get you one is to get you out of here. So, we're going for a drive. We'll do a bunch of random bullshit and come back tonight."

"This sounds like a trip you take your girlfriend on," she mumbled and pulled the pillow over her head. "Go get one of those and leave me alone."

"I don't have a girlfriend, I have you," Leonard said, pulling the pillow off her head and leaning closer to ensure that she was listening. "You need to get away from this place. Who knows, maybe some clarity will help with your case. I learned in med school that sometimes your best course of action is to take a step back and reexamine. You aren't doing that. So, I've decided to make you."

"It's Friday. Don't you have a job and a daughter to worry about, why are you bothering me?" Jim pouted.

"Boyce and M'Benga have the office handled and your brother has Jo covered. You're stuck with me. Now, stop pouting and get up," he told her.

"I really hate you sometimes. I thought you were a doctor, not a travel agent," she grumbled as she tossed the blankets off and got out of the bed. He smiled and she just looked at him. "And now I sound like you. Great."

"Do I really do that scowl thing you just did?"

"All the fuckin' time."

"Huh, that is scary," Leonard smiled.

"I should've shot you. I still might," Jim chuckled.

"No you won't. Get a move on, I made coffee and I doubt you want to drink it cold."

"You're a pain in the ass, Bones, you know that?"

"Takes one to know one, darlin'."


	11. Chapter 11

"What is with you and the damn Beastie Boys?" Leonard asked in the car.

"You woke me up and dragged me out of my house in the middle of November, the least you can do is let me listen to whatever the fuck I want for a while," Jim said with an eye roll.

"Twenty minutes, then I'm changing it," he told her.

"Fine by me," she shrugged. Leonard watched her out of the corner of his eye as she bobbed her head and quietly sang along. "My dad." He gave her a quick look. "The answer to your question is my dad liked the Beastie Boys. There's a crawl space behind the closet in Sam's old room and I found this cassette of _Licensed to Ill_. Sam told me that it was our dad's but that I was too young to listen to it. I listened anyway and now, I'm a lifelong fan."

"My dad was a Billy Joel fan. And not the dozen or so songs that everybody knows, the sad, depressing stuff."

"So that's why you're grumpy," Jim smiled.

"Hey. I'm not…"

"You are. Like to the point where people ask me about it."

"People talk about me?" Leonard asked.

"It's a small town, we all talk about each other," she chuckled. "You are the focus of _a lot_ of rumors."

"Do I wanna know?"

"There are some about Gaila, others about your marriage and, of course, a bunch about me."

"Like what?"

"Umm… Okay, so you know how I spent the night at your house after we got our Mulder and Scully on?" Jim asked. He gave her a nod. "Gaila called me as soon as I left. Misses Erving saw my car and told everyone who listen that we fucked each other."

"You're kidding," he chuckled.

"I wish."

"Sweet Misses Erving who lives across the street from me?"

"Yes, that sweet Misses Erving. She told me that I need to stop sinning and to leave you be because you need a Godly woman to help you take care of your daughter," she told him.

"What!?" Leonard chuckled. "She did not."

"Oh, yes she did. I was talking to Pavel, one of Spock's students who helps out on the farm year-round, his cute little face turned bright red. He was sputtering in his adorable Russian accent, it was hilarious."

"That's it. I'm moving to… California," he laughed.

"No, you can't go. Don't leave me with those people," Jim said, her hands wrapping around his arm.

"You can come with me if you want."

* * *

"Why didn't you bring Jo on this trip? I mean, I'm sure she'd get a kick outta something like this, right?" Jim asked as they had a late breakfast in Dubuque, Iowa, on the west bank of Mississippi River at the Iowa/Illinois and Iowa/Wisconsin borders.

"You mean other than the fact that she's at school?" he smiled. Riverside Elementary was still closed but the kids were using the extra spaces in the high school. Jim nodded and made a motion with her hand to continue. "I wanted to spend some time with you without her."

"Uh…"

"Don't. It's not like that."

"You mean, you _don't_ like me?" she asked.

"I never said that," Leonard sighed and he could almost feel himself blush. "Look, I'm trying to be a friend and talk without having to edit for little ears."

"So, this trip is about me and not you?" Jim gave him a look.

"That's what I said."

"And what if I don't believe you?"

"Why wouldn't you?"

"Because I'd bet that you haven't taken a break since you got married. As a matter of fact, your one-and-a-half-day trip to Georgia is the first time you've taken off work in a decade, excluding the whole mess with your ex, sick days and Joanna's birth," she told him. He gave her a look. "You were working the day she was born, weren't you?"

"She was almost two weeks early, my leave hadn't started yet," he chuckled. "How do you do that?"

"It's my superhero ability," Jim smiled. "Face it, Bones, you need a break just as much, if not more, then I do."

"I guess."

"I don't guess, I know. The truth is out there."

"Whatever you say, Mulder."

"So, where are we going, Agent Scully?"

"I don't know. My vote is east," Leonard said, opening the map on his phone. They could take US-151-N to Madison, Wisconsin or they could take US-20-E and I-90-E to Chicago. Madison was closer but Leonard's never been to the Windy City before, not including sitting around O'Hare International. "How does Chicago sound to you?"

"Oooo, Chicago's good. After we go to the National Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium around the corner," she said with a smirk, her phone in her hand.

"Okay, I pick the next stop after that."

"Deal."

* * *

"Why do you have a problem with Prince? How do you have a problem with Prince?" Jim asked like he was crazy.

"I don't not like Prince, I'm just not a fan. He's okay," Leonard shrugged from the passenger seat.

"Okay? He's arguably one of the best musicians to ever live. What is wrong with you?" she groaned. "I'm seriously reevaluating our friendship."

"Over Prince? You would stop being my friend over Prince?" he gave her a look.

Jim didn't say anything for a second, then she glanced at him. "Thoughts on the Raspberries?"

"Who?" Leonard replied. Jim glanced at him with a look of shock on her face. " _Before her love, I was cruel and mean. I had a hole in the place, where my heart should have been. But now I've changed. And it feels so strange. I come alive when she does all those things to me. And she says…_ "

" _Please, go all the way. It feels so right, being with you here tonight_ ," she smiled as she sang a few lines of the old song. "We can stay friends."

"So, that was the deal breaker?" he asked.

"Yes," Jim chuckled. "No, I'm just kidding. I wouldn't stop being friends with you no matter how questionable I find your taste in music to be. Really, who else has the balls to walk into my office and threaten to sedate me while I'm armed? Or show up in my bedroom and tell me what to do on my day off? Chris isn't even that brave and the man is practically my dad. Face it, you got everyone beat."

"Damn straight."

"I still think you're an idiot for not liking Prince," she smiled.

"Well, I don't care what you think."

"I don't believe that for one second, Bonesy."

"I don't care what you believe," Leonard chuckled.

"Yes you do," Jim said. "You care a lot more than you want to."

"Maybe," he sighed. "Or maybe I just care more than you're used to."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"You're very good at keeping people, even your friends, at arm's length. But you said it yourself; I know more about you than most people do, including some of your family. I don't think that's an accident. You've sorta been on your own since you were little. Other than George and Chris, nobody ever really bothered to give a damn but I do and you can't figure out why."

"So, tell me."

"I don't know."

"You don't know if you should tell me?" she asked.

"No. I don't know why I care so damn much," Leonard sighed. He did know, he just wasn't brave enough to admit it. Jim glanced at him for a second and he had the distinct feeling that she knew he was lying his ass off but she didn't call him out. "Just know that I do."

"I know."

* * *

"Come on, Bones," Jim smiled.

"No," he told her.

"Don't be a baby, this was your idea," she chuckled.

"No. Chicago was my idea. Willis Tower was your idea," Leonard pointed out. "I'm not going out there."

"It's just a clear floor," Jim said.

How she talked him into going up to Skydeck, he'll never know. Well, he does know; she held his hand in both of hers, did a little pout and bat her eyelashes at him. Like a sucker, he said yes to going up to the 103rd floor of Willis Tower. However, Leonard drew the line at going out on what most people call The Ledge, the clear balcony boxes overlooking Chicago.

"Not gonna do it," he shook his head. "I have acrophobia. You know what that means?"

"Yes, it's an extreme and irrational fear of heights. You also have aviophobia and yet, you still manage to get in an airplane. More than one, actually."

"Jim…"

"Fine, can you at least take my picture?" she sighed, holding out her phone. Leonard took a step closer to grab the device when Jim's other hand shot out, wrapped around his wrist and pulled him into the glass box. "Can't believe you fell for that."

"I swear to God, Jim. This is not funny."

"It is funny because you're perfectly fine, Bonesy. I would never let anything happen to you and you know it. Besides, there's an amazing view. Open your eyes and look."

"I hate you."

"You couldn't hate me if you tried," Jim said. Leonard could get away from her if he really wanted to but he found himself rooted to this spot and it had nothing to do with the amazing view that he cracked his eyes open to see. The feeling of Jim's body pressed against his back, her arms wrapped around him, hands resting on his stomach and her chin on his shoulder was not something that he would forget anytime soon.

"That was still mean," Leonard whispered.

"You'll get over it. Just… look at that view. It's not the same from over there."

He intertwined his fingers with Jim's, "No, I guess it's not."

* * *

"You don't have to walk me to my door, Bones."

"Did you ever consider that I'm a gentleman and walking a lady to her door is a habit that I have no intention on shaking?" he smiled. After grabbing dinner in Chicago, because you can't go to Chicago without getting pizza, they made the three-and-a-half-hour drive back to Riverside, bickering about music the whole time.

"That would imply that I'm a lady. Misses Erving made it very clear that I'm not," Jim chuckled.

"She doesn't know what the hell she's talking about because I see a lady."

"You should tell her that," she smiled.

"Just might. Is she really that nosy?" Leonard asked.

"She really is. Be careful about your outside activities or the whole town will hear about it."

"Good to know. I should probably go get Jo."

"You know, it's late. She's probably asleep," Jim pointed out.

"Probably. I should still go," he smiled. "And you should get inside. It's cold."

"Only because you're such a southerner," she said before she pressed a quick kiss against his cheek. "Goodnight, Bones."

"Goodnight, Jim," Leonard said. He watched her go into the house before he headed back to his car.

Okay, so a kiss on the cheek probably doesn't mean anything, especially since Jim is a little on the touchy-feely side. But she doesn't go around kissing people, on the cheek or otherwise. Leonard was trying not to read too much into it when his phone rang. Except, it wasn't his phone, it was Jim's phone in the center console.

"Lieutenant Kirk's phone," he answered when he saw that the call was from the station.

"Doctor McCoy?" Sheriff Pike was understandably surprised.

"Yea."

"Why do you have Jim's phone?"

"She left it in my car," Leonard answered honestly. "I'm outside her house. Gimme a minute and you can talk to her." Leonard hopped out of the car and jogged up the handful of stairs before giving the door a quick knock. He heard a crash, like something got knocked over. "Jim, you alright?" he called as he opened the door. Then he heard someone -who wasn't Jim- yell. "Jim!" he called again.

"What's going on?" Pike asked but Leonard wasn't paying him any attention. He rushed into the kitchen just as he heard gunshots.

"Jim!"

"I'm fine," she croaked as she pulled a rope from around her neck, gun still in her hand and pointed at the back door.

"Sheriff, I think you better get over here," Leonard said into the phone before hanging it up and tossing it on the table. "Are you okay?" There was glass all over the kitchen floor and she was bleeding from a few different places, including her head. He grabbed the towel off the counter and held it against her wound. "Jim, are you okay?"

"Depends on how we're defining 'okay'."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dun dun duuuuuun! The plot thickens, as they say.
> 
> Jim and Bones are singing Go All The Way by The Raspberries. If you get the chance to listen to it, you'll find the lyrics are very Jim/Bones.
> 
> Edit: April 22, 2016. Oh, my heart. I wrote this story before Prince passed away and I cannot express how much he influenced me to just create the things you want to create and not give a damn about what other people say about it. He will be sorely missed.


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I was gonna stick to the one-a-day postings but this chapter is already edited and I just couldn't help myself. Jim and Bones have a conversation and shit gets real. Well, more real.

"You can't stay here," Sheriff Pike told Jim as they sat or stood in her kitchen.

"I'm not leaving," Jim said, her voice hoarse. He already told her not to talk but she wasn't listening, as usual.

"Don't be stubborn, this place is a crime scene and this door is busted, Jimmy," Pike tried again. "Pack a bag and go to my house."

"No. Why the hell should I let him run me off my own goddamn property?" she growled. The gruffness of her voice giving it a scary quality.

"Stop moving," Leonard told her as he patched up the gash on her head. Since she refused to go to the ER, she was stuck with him and he was already pissed off. His eyes kept drifting to the marks on her neck. This guy was lucky that he wasn't in the house. "I was here when you left earlier, you locked the doors. How'd he get in?"

"We're trying to figure that out," the sheriff sighed. "In the meantime, you can't stay here, Jim."

"You can stay with me if you want," Leonard offered before he could think better of it. "Joanna thinks I messed up your special pancakes, you can teach me how to make 'em. Besides, Jessica Jones is getting interesting." He was lying about the pancakes, Jo thought he did a good job, but he had to say something. Jim can't stay here by herself and he'd feel a whole lot better if he could keep an eye on her.

"She got you hooked on that show too," Pike chuckled. "It's one of us or I call your brother."

"Fine," Jim said with a groan. "I'll go with Bones."

"That wasn't so hard," Leonard smiled.

"Bite me. That hurts," she sighed as he moved to her hand. It wasn't deep and there wasn't any glass in it, so it shouldn't be too much of a problem.

"Don't be an infant," Leonard told her. He offered to give her something for the pain but she said no.

"You have horrible bedside manners," Jim chuckled.

"You're not exactly patient of the year," Leonard retorted.

"Fuck you," she snapped.

"Promises, promises." Leonard could play this game. Jim gave him a heated look like she wasn't exactly opposed to the idea. He tried to shake his head clear of all the very inappropriate thoughts that ran though his mind.

"Okay, you two," Pike chuckled.

"That should hold and I can check on it later, go grab some stuff for the next few days," Leonard told his friend as he secured the bandage on her hand. She scowled at him and Pike but left the room just the same. "Stubborn."

"As a mule," Pike chuckled. "Thank you for helping. She'd fight with me until the sun came up over this house."

"Can you blame her? It's the place she feels safest. Even with someone in here, I doubt she's gonna let him rob her of her peace of mind," the doctor said.

"You know, don't you?"

"About the asshole her mom married, her juvie record and all the other crap that went with it? Yes, I know."

"Huh, I never thought I'd see the day she'd tell someone," Pike said with a look on his face that Leonard couldn't place. "Look, I don't know what this guy's endgame is but coming after Jim was about the dumbest thing he could've done. She's not gonna stop until she finds him. That said, someone is gonna need to keep her from doing every stupid thing in the book."

"You want me to keep an eye on her?" Leonard asked.

"Yea," the sheriff nodded.

"I was gonna do that anyway."

* * *

"I thought you were gonna get Jo," Jim gave him a look as he drove to his house.

"No. Like you said earlier, it's late or early. It's almost two in the morning. She's asleep. We can get her later," Leonard said. He talked to George for a few minutes, just to let him know what was going on. "I'll uh… I'll take the couch and you can have my room."

"I'm not kicking you out of your bed, Bones. I'll take the couch," she sighed.

The pair lapsed into a not-so-comfortable silence. Jim was more antsy than he's ever seen her and it worried him. Leonard reached over and wrapped his right hand around her left, "It's gonna be okay."

"I almost had him. I actually had my hands on him and he slipped right through my fingers. Anyone he hurts now… it's on me," Jim whispered.

"His actions are his own, Jim. You can't take responsibility for something someone else does and you know it," he told her as they pulled into his driveway. "This isn't your fault."

"If you say so," she sighed as she grabbed her bag and got out of the car.

Leonard groaned in frustration, they were having a really good day until all of this. The thought crossed his mind that had he not pulled her out the house, she would've been home when this guy showed up. The idea of her tied up, raped, strangled and mutilated made his chest hurt, actual physical pain. He took a deep breath before he got out of the car.

* * *

"What are you doing?" Leonard whispered into the dark.

"Can't sleep," Jim whispered back huskily as she climbed into bed with him.

"I offered you my room and you shouldn't talk," he chuckled.

"I think it's more to do with being by myself," she told him, ignoring his attempt to help her voice. Leonard turned onto his side to face her and found Jim's blue eyes on him. "Wasn't really a problem until now."

"Being alone?"

"Yep. I was perfectly fine until you showed up." The way she said it was accusatory but Leonard didn't have it in him to feel bad about it. He was perfectly fine until she dropped into his life; a little bitter but still fine.

"I have that effect on people," Leonard smiled.

"You do. It's annoying," Jim chuckled hoarsely.

"Watch it or I'll kick you outta my bed and stop talking."

"You have met me, right? I'm always talking. And you wouldn't kick me out, you're too worried about me and you know it."

"Maybe."

"Not maybe. It's why you offered to let me stay the night with you. You would've stayed up all night worrying about me if I had gone to Chris'," she pointed out.

"I'm not that easy to read," he sighed.

"You are to me."

"What am I thinking then?"

"That you've never seen me rattled and it doesn't mesh with my usual indifference. Though, you know I've never been as indifferent as most people assume," Jim sighed. "I put on a brave face for everyone else but I'm scared and you can see it. You want to fix it but you don't know how. So, if I want to lay in your bed with you, you're not gonna fight me or send me away because you know how much it takes for me to actually admit something like that. And the fact that I'm within arm's reach makes you feel better. You care a lot more about me then you thought you did."

Well, damn.

"I'm right," Jim sighed.

"You usually are," Leonard chuckled.

"Can't help it," she sighed. "Not that I would ever really want to."

"Wouldn't be you if you did," he said.

"True," she said as she rolled onto her back. Leonard just stared at her. "What?"

"Something's on your mind. What is it?" the southerner asked.

"You mean, other than the man who tried to kill me a couple hours ago?"

"Yea, other than him."

"I don't know if I should tell you. My voice is all messed up, anyway," Jim muttered.

"Now I really wanna know," Leonard told her with a smile.

"It's just…" she paused. "Today… err, yesterday."

"What about it?"

"It was nice. Being spontaneous. Haven't done anything like that in a while."

"Figured as much. It was nice seeing you relax," he smiled.

"I don't have the luxury around here," Jim sighed.

"You would if you didn't try to save the world by yourself."

"I've never been good at that. People have a habit of letting me down. It's easier to do it all by myself," she told him.

"No it's not," Leonard said. "It's exhausting. I see it. It's like you got this little rain cloud hanging over your head."

"And it's always pouring."

"Maybe you just need a new umbrella," he chuckled.

Jim stared at him, "You don't want my rainstorms, Bones."

"I think you should let me decide what I want, Jim."

"What do you want?" she asked. Leonard set himself up for that and he knew it. He opened his mouth to answer when Jim sighed. "Don't answer that. We should go to sleep."

"Jim…"

"It's been a long day, we're both tired and I sound like a frog. Just ignore me."

"What if I don't want to ignore you?" he asked her. He opened his mouth, he might as well go for it. "What if I want to pull you closer? Or sleep with you in my arms? Or find out if those lips are soft as they look? What if I want you as much as you want me?" He was well aware that she was sitting up and staring at him. When she didn't say anything, he smiled. "Don't tell me you're speechless, darlin'. You honestly think that I don't think about you?"

"I'm not a rebound."

"That's cute," he groaned, turning on the lamp as he got out of bed. "Is that what you think this is?"

"Don't tell me you're all offended," Jim said as she got out of bed and stood on the other side of the room. "You told me that you don't want to date anyone. Now, you wanna… make out with me. What the hell am I supposed to think?"

"Dammit. Did you ever consider that maybe I was in denial because I didn't want to admit that you're under my skin? I wake up thinking about you. I go to bed wondering if you're okay. I actually check my phone like a fuckin' teenager for those annoying texts you send me all the time. You have no idea what it felt like when I ran into your kitchen earlier. I don't know if I'm more pissed that someone was in your house without your permission or that he hurt you."

"I'm fine."

"You were sitting on your kitchen floor, surrounded by glass, pulling a rope from around your neck with a gun in your hand and bleeding. Don't tell me you're fine. I'm not fine and I'm not the one who was fighting a killer," he growled.

"I'm obviously okay," she glared at him. "Besides, I didn't know I owed you an explanation about someone attacking _me_ in _my_ house."

"You're right," Leonard said, "you don't owe me an explanation. Just… I care about what happens to you and I don't think you get that. For those seconds when I didn't know what I'd find in your kitchen, I was terrified. I rounded the corner and you were… All I wanted to do was get you as far away from there as I could."

He leaned against the wall and closed his eyes. Leonard's admittedly never been good with words. Hell, he's not even that good with people. He didn't know how to tell her how he feels. It was like a war raging in his brain. Part of him knew that he couldn't take any of this back but the other part of him didn't give a shit. He could've lost her before he ever had her and it didn't sit right with him.

"Bones," Jim whispered and his eyes snapped open. When did she get so damn close? She had moved and now she was standing in front him. Jim reached over and took one of his hands in hers before pressing it against her neck. "Feel that?" He nodded. Her pulse was strong and even under his fingertips. "I'm okay. You distracted him enough to give me a fighting chance. You know I'm telling the truth because my pulse hasn't changed, has it?"

"No," he whispered, running his thumb over the line that the rope left on her skin. "It hasn't."

"You gotta have some faith, Bones. I know what I'm doing and this guy… he may be stronger than me but he's not smarter. I will catch him."

"Before he tries to kill you again?"

"Yes. I have something that he doesn't have," she said with a small smile.

"Oh, yea. What's that?"

"You."


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The slow burn flashes over. This is an obligatory warning: the following chapter contains content that could be considered Not Suitable for Work.

"You don't have me," Leonard tried to tell her but it wasn't even remotely true and they both knew it.

"Pretty sure that you just told me I did," Jim pointed out, stepping even closer to him, their chests touching and her fingers playing with the hem of his shirt. The way her voice rasped over the words was just unfair. She looked up at him, her eyes glowing like they were lit from the inside. "Your pulse is racing, Leonard."

The way she said his name, not Bones or Grumpy or anything other than his name, was too much and for the first time in a long time, he snapped. The hand that had been on Jim's neck buried in her hair and he pressed his lips against hers. The kiss was bruising, a mess of teeth clashing and tongues tangling like he was trying to devour her. He wasn't entirely sure he wasn't. As usual, Jim gave as good as she got, her hands gripped his waist as she kissed him back with as much enthusiasm as she does everything else. She even attempted to take control but he wasn't having it. Leonard switched their spots, pinning her between his body and the wall. He kissed her with everything he had, drawing a moan from her that sent tingles all the way down to this toes.

"Bones," Jim sighed when his lips moved from her mouth to kiss along her jaw. "Please."

"What do you need, darlin'?" he asked as he nipped her ear. As much as he wanted Jim, he didn't want to do anything she wasn't comfortable with and given what happened a few hours ago, that could be a very long list of things. "Tell me."

"You. Just you," she whispered like it he should've known that already and maybe he did. She pushed his shirt over his head, her fingers then her lips running over his skin.

They'd been dancing around each other since they met and drove him crazy. She invaded his thoughts and his dreams and the only regret he has is not doing something about it sooner. Jim gave him that sexy little smirk she gives him when she's about to be a little shit as she pushed him backwards. He sat down when the back of his legs hit the side of his bed and she stood in the space between his legs. "What are you doing?"

"You're not wearing a shirt, thought I'd even things up a little," Jim smiled before she slowly pulled the fitted black t-shirt over her head. Leonard didn't know where to look; the insanely flat stomach, the little stars tattooed on the smooth skin of her right hip that disappeared into the waistband of her shorts or the most perfect pair of perky, full breasts.

"You're… stunning, darlin'," he sighed before his eyes found themselves focused on the bruise blossoming on her left side. Leonard reached up and ran his fingers along the skin. "You didn't show me this."

"It's not that bad," she told him. He gave her a nod despite the anger he felt returning. "Hey, look at me. Not at that, at me." Leonard's eyes locked with hers. "It's just a bruise. It will annoy me for a while but it will heal. Now, there's a topless woman in your bedroom, McCoy, what are you gonna do about it?"

He held her gaze for a long moment before he rested his hands on her hips and pulled her onto his lap, her legs straddling him. Leonard pressed his lips against the hollow of her throat, dropping kisses along her beautifully flushed skin. His hands slid up her sides before moving to her breasts, one in each hand.

"Bones," Jim sighed, her eyes fluttering closed.

He smirked as he circled her nipples with his thumbs, watching as they hardened at his touch, before he pulled her closer and pulled one into his mouth. Leonard let out a groan, the taste her skin was a little salty and a little sweet and would be seared into his brain forever. Jim rolled her hips against him and her hands tightened; one on his shoulder, the other in his hair. He took that as his cue to continue, alternating between sucking and nipping at the sensitive flesh. Jim moaned when he switched sides, her hips moved against him again. Leonard was so hard it was almost painful but he wasn't selfish.

Apparently, Jim wasn't selfish either because she slid her uninjured hand into his pajama bottoms and wrapped it around him. He groaned low in his throat as she gave him a few different stokes, trying to figure out what he liked. His hips jerked when she figured it out and a smile formed on her lips. Leonard closed his eyes and tried not to lose his mind.

"You like that," she chuckled before she brought their lips together again. This kiss wasn't as rough as the first one but it was no less intoxicating. She really was trying to kill him. Leonard stood up with Jim in his arms before turning around and laying her on his bed.

"You gotta let go a second," Leonard told her.

"But, Bones," Jim gave him a pout but she pulled her hand away from him. "What are you up to?"

"Your shorts are in my way," he said with a smile. "May I?" She nodded. "Words, Jim, use 'em."

"Yes, you can take my shorts off. You can take everything off if you want to," she rasped.

"See, that wasn't so hard."

"You're really chatty in bed."

"I know I am and I want you to be too. I wanna hear what you like and what you don't like," Leonard told her as he peeled the gray shorts and little blue underwear off and tossed them on his floor. He swore under his breath, she was neatly waxed but not bare and soaking wet. If he could be any harder, he would be.

"Bones," Jim moaned as he ran his fingers along her inner thighs and she parted her knees for him.

"Remember what I said," he smiled, "I wanna hear ya." That was all the warning he gave her before he went to his knees, pulling her legs over his shoulders as he kissed and nipped along her inner thighs for a moment before flicking his tongue quickly over her clit, moaning at the taste.

"Bones," she whined, bucking her hips at the contact. He chuckled against her, one hand flattened on her stomach to hold her down. Jim made a bunch of little pants and moans as he slowly worked her over with his tongue, her hands buried in his hair. Leonard slid two fingers into her. "Oh, God." He chuckled against her and she moved against his mouth and hand. "Bones. Please."

"What is it, darlin'?" Leonard asked with a smirk as his fingers continued drawing gasps from her lips.

"I…" Jim started. "Ohhh."

"What was that, Jimmy?"

"You're an ass," she told him breathlessly.

"You don't say." He flicked his tongue over her clit again before pulling it into his mouth.

"Oh my God. Bones," Jim cried. "Fuck." He chuckled and her whole body vibrated. "Leonard, please."

"What do you need?"

"More."

"More what?"

"Pressure. Your mouth, I need more pressure," she told him.

"See, that's not hard," he chuckled.

"I know what is," Jim chuckled before it turned into a moan as he returned to his task. "Why the fuck are you so good at this?" Leonard didn't answer her, he kept licking and sucking as her breathing became shallow and irregular. She was so close. He sped up and added even more pressure. "Oh, fuck." He twisted his fingers and Jim's whole body arched, a bunch of nonsense spilling from her lips as her orgasm took hold of her. Leonard didn't let up, if anything, he worked harder, adding a third finger to the two already moving inside her. Jim was writhing and moaning and he had no intention of letting her come down just yet. "Bones. Bonnnnes."

"Yes?"

"I swear to all that's holy, if you don't fuck me right now, I will shoot you."

"That would just be mean," Leonard chuckled as he eased his hand out of her and stood up, his face and hand slick.

"You're mean. Get over here," she practically cried. He kicked off his pants before climbing onto the bed with Jim. "We can have the super-fast the birth control conversation. I get the shot and my tests are clean; you have access to my records."

"My tests are good; I'll give you my results if you want," he smiled as he kissed along her tattoo. "Now, where were we?"

"Don't play with me right now," Jim said with a little grin.

"Wouldn't dare," Leonard said as he crawled up her body. "You sure about this?"

"Look at you being all gentleman like."

"Well, I am a gentleman and I'm not gonna move until you tell me to."

"Bon… Leonard," she ran her fingers along his jaw, "please."

"Yes, ma'am."

There were no words to describe the feeling of finally sinking into Jim; she was warm, soft, wet and tight around him. Jim let out a noise that was half-sigh and half-moan. Leonard held himself still for a minute, knowing that he didn't have it in him to drag this out the way he wanted to, she felt too good wrapped around him like this.

"Breathe, Bones," Jim smiled.

"You feel fuckin' amazing," he muttered before he flexed his hips just a little. Jim sucked in a sharp breath and her eyes fluttered closed. "Let me see those beautiful blues." Her eyes opened and refocused on him.

"You gotta move," she breathed. Leonard smirked as he pulled out of her before plunging back in. "Ohhh." He leaned back a little finding the angle that he was looking for and plunged deep. Jim's eyes widened. "Oh my God."

"That's it, isn't it, darlin'? Right there?" Leonard asked as he moved against her G-spot.

"B-Bones," Jim gasped. "Oh God. Don't stop."

"Not planning on it just yet," he told her, setting a steady rhythm that drew the most beautiful sounds from Jim. "You're beautiful, darlin'." She whimpered and her body tightened around him. "You like the sound of my voice, don't you?"

"Course I do," she muttered.

"Want me to keep talking?"

"Please."

"This is just what you needed, isn't it?" he asked. She bit her lip. "You wouldn't let anyone lay you out this this, I know you wouldn't."

"No, I wouldn't," she moaned as he sped up, her legs locking around his waist.

"They gotta earn it. You don't trust everyone, darlin'," Leonard said, keeping his voice low.

"Never have. Trust you," Jim practically cried as they moved together.

"I know you do," he told her, snapping his hips. "I trust you too."

"Bones, please," she breathed, another orgasm looming. He was almost there too but he was trying to hold back for her. "Please."

"I got ya, darlin', I got ya," Leonard said before he gave her three deep, hard thrusts. Her whole body tightened around him, her back arched, her eyes went completely out of focus and she let out a choked sob. He watched her come completely undone and he couldn't hold on anymore. Leonard growled her name as his eyes closed and he let go, his whole body trembling as he did.

"You're okay," she breathed, her voice more gravelly than it was before. "I got you." Jim was running a hand through his hair as he rested his head on her shoulder.

"That's my line. Are you okay?"

"Much better than okay. You?"

"Wonderful," he smiled as he -reluctantly- pulled out of her and dropped a kiss on her nose before he went into his bathroom. He cleaned up quickly before grabbing a damp washcloth and returning to the woman in his bed. He offered to wipe her down and she let him. "Why the stars?"

"Seemed like a good idea at the time," Jim sighed. She had a tattoo on the inside of her left arm, one on her left wrist, one on her right elbow, one behind her right ear and one on her left foot. He didn't know about the cluster of stars on her hip before tonight. "It wasn't as painful as the one on my foot."

Leonard said as he tossed the cloth in his hamper. Jim wiggled her toes when he grabbed her foot. "What is it?"

"Hebrew for George. Wanted something for my dad that wasn't obvious."

He ran his fingers over the black ink, "I like it."

"Me too," she chuckled. "You should get some ink. Bet it would look good on you."

"I'll think about it."

"Really?"

"I said I'll think about it, not that I'd do it for sure. Don't go planning to tat me up." Leonard turned off the light and got back into bed. Jim snuggled against his side.

"I'm sure I can convince you."

"I'm sure you could. But you won't," Leonard told her as he ran his fingers through her hair.

"True," Jim smiled against his shoulder. "You should know that I suck at relationship stuff."

"So do I, obviously," he sighed. "This doesn't have to change anything if you don't want it to but we're good with each other." I would kill him but if it's what she wanted it, he would try to stay friends.

"What do you want to do?" she asked in a quiet voice.

"If I'm being honest, I would like to take you on an actual date at some point but I don't wanna scare you off," Leonard told her.

"Oh?"

"Yep. I don't know if we could just… go back to before. I wouldn't want to anyway."

"Honestly, me neither."

"That's good because I don't know if you realize what it's like being around you. Half the time I wanna smack you upside the head and the rest of the time I wanna kiss you until you can't see straight."

"I'm cool like that," she chuckled, then groaned. Leonard ran a hand over her throat, she's not going to be able to talk in the morning if she doesn't stop. He'd warn her again if it would actually help. "I just… I… You should know that you're under my skin too. Probably explains why my dates have all sucked as of late. There's you and then there's everybody else. It's almost unfair."

"Really? You compare your dates to me?" Leonard asked as he ran his fingers along her spine.

"Shut up."

"Why should I? You compare your dates to me." If he sounded like a smug asshole, he didn't care. The fact that she was thinking about him while she was with other men did all kinds of things to his ego.

"It's not a conscious thing, Bones. At least, I don't think it is," Jim sighed, looking at him.

"Don't care. Your mind has you comparing people to me. What is it? 'He's not as smart as Bones'? or 'Bones has better taste in music'?" he smiled. "Tell me."

"You really wanna know?" she asked. He gave her a nod. "It's more like 'Bones would've made me dinner' and 'Bones would be looking at my face and not down my shirt.' Though, you do check me out all the time, just never when we're having an actual conversation. My personal favorite; 'Bones actually listens when I speak.' Some other, more superficial stuff too because I'm only human."

"Oh?"

"Yea. Like, did you know that there are gold and green flecks in your eyes?" Jim asked as she touched his face.

"I didn't know that."

"They're beautiful. Everyone fusses over my eyes but yours… I could stare at your eyes all day," she sighed. Leonard couldn't help but smile at that. "Don't get me started on that smile. It doesn't make nearly enough appearances for my liking."

"Okay, stop," Leonard's smile widened.

"Are you blushing?" she asked as she looked at him in the dark. "I think you are."

"Shut up. Save your voice."

"I made you blush. Ooo, what should I talk about next? How about this jawline?"

"Jim."

"No, I should talk about that accent and how everything sounds so much sexier when you…" Jim started but he cut her off, his mouth swallowing the rest of her sentence. She slid one of her legs across his body, straddling him without breaking the kiss. Leonard's hands moved to hold on to her hips.

"God, darlin'," he groaned when she ground against him.

"Bones," she sighed as his lips moved to press kisses against every inch of the marks left on her neck, almost willing them to go away. "You gonna kiss all my boo-boos?"

"I can, if you want," Leonard muttered against her skin. He felt her hips jerk at the idea. "You'd like that, wouldn't you? My mouth all over your body." She let out a little whimper. "I'll take that as a yes."

"Well, I didn't even get started on your lips. They're positively sinful and that's before you kissed me," Jim sighed before pressing a soft kiss against the corner of his mouth. "I mean, it's not just your lips. You rolled into town like sex on legs, Leonard." She smirked as she sat up. Of course, the shift in her weight on him caused Leonard to groan, his hands tightening on her hips. Leonard doesn't know how but he was hard as a rock again. He moved against her, letting Jim feel him. "You like it when I say your name."

"Of course I do, darlin'," Leonard said before he flipped them over, pinning her under him. "I like a lot of things. Would you like to know some of them?"

"I would love to," she moaned as he slid into her again. "Leonard."

"At your service, ma'am."


	14. Chapter 14

Leonard woke with a start when the arm around his waist tightened. Unlike every other time he's woken like this in the last few months, it wasn't in his head. The body that was pressed against his side was warm, soft and very real. He blinked his eyes open and looked down at the woman in is arms, Jim's face pressed against his shoulder. She was more relaxed than he's ever seen her and he could help but take satisfaction in the fact that he had something to do with it.

"Go back to sleep," Jim rasped. He was right, her voice was almost gone.

"How am I supposed to do that when I have you in my bed?" he asked with a smile.

"How are you not worn out?" she said with a low, throaty chuckle. "Oh, great. I'm losing my voice."

"Not gonna apologize for it, darlin," Leonard smiled. She raised an eyebrow. "Okay, I might if it gets any worse but I did warn you."

"Time?"

"Almost ten."

"Jo?" Jim asked.

"Are you trying to kick me out of my own bed?" he asked.

"No. If you don't get her, Sam will bring her. I doubt you want to tell him how we spent half of the last seven hours," she fought the words out.

"Do you ever stop talking?" Leonard asked. Jim shook her head. "Figured. I do not want to have that conversation. That said, I'm not gonna pretend it didn't happen either. If he has to take me behind the barn and give me some scary talk with his shotgun, so be it." Jim let go of the breath she was holding. "He scares 'em off, huh?"

Jim pointed at herself, "Me."

"If you're trying to tell me that you scare people off more than your brother, I don't see how," he smiled. Jim nodded. "You're not scary." She gave him a look and he chuckled. "You're not. At least, not to me." Jim raised an eyebrow. "You're tough as hell and a bit exasperating sometimes and I never want to be on the receiving end of your fury but I'm not scared of you."

"Good to know."

"You're just you, darlin'. The good, the bad and everything in the middle."

"Stop being sweet. It's really weird," she groaned.

"Hey, I'm sweet."

"Cantankerous and short tempered."

"Sex can make a nice man out the meanest," Leonard laughed.

"I feel like I've heard that before," Jim whispered.

"A _Saturday Night Live_ digital short," he told her. "You hungry?" She gave him a shrug. "How about you take a shower while I make breakfast?" Jim shook her head, pointed at him, then at herself, then at his bathroom. "You wanna shower together?" She wiggled her eyebrows at him. "I like that idea better too."

* * *

"Look what the cat dragged in," Arlene smiled when Jim and Leonard walked into the house through the back door just after lunch. "Georgie told me what happened. You okay?" Jim pouted.

"She lost her voice," Leonard answered for Jim, who smiled at him in thanks. She made a motion with her hand. "She wants to know where everybody is."

"Kids are in the living room. Georgie's outside somewhere," Arlene told her. Jim kissed her sister-in-law on the cheek before venturing further into the house. "Is she really okay?"

"You mean other than the fact that the motor mouth can't talk?" he asked. Arlene nodded. "She's got some cuts and bruises but I cleaned 'em up. She's pissed that someone was in her house and she needs a new back door. She's also worried that this isn't the end of it, as well she should be. Other than that, she's okay."

"Okay," Arlene sighed. "If something happened to that girl, it would kill George. Not that it wouldn't hurt all of us but I honestly think Jim's death would actually kill my husband. Chris too."

"I've noticed that she has that effect on people," Leonard chuckled.

"She has that effect on you too," Arlene smiled. "I can't wait until Georgie figures that out."

"Figures what out?"

"You've been Kirked."

"'Kirked'? Sounds contagious," he smiled. "You want help with those?"

"Sure. You can dry," she smiled and tossed him the dish towel. Leonard shrugged off his jacket and hung it on the chair before standing next to Jim's sister-in-law. "When we were kids, Gaila called it the 'Jimmy and Georgie Effect.' When we were in high school, it morphed to being 'Kirked'. You look like me in all my prom pictures and wedding pictures and pictures right after Peter was born. Completely and utterly at the mercy of the Kirk charm. Kirked."

"It's not…"

"It's that obvious. Doesn't help that Jim smells like your soap."

"I guess I'll have to have that uncomfortable conversation with her brother sooner rather than later," he sighed as he dried the plates she handed him. He was trying and failing not to think of just how Jim ended up smelling like him.

"George has only had to give the shovel talk once and it wasn't that bad. Chris' talk is another story; I know that one from personal experience. My talk goes like this; Jim's as much my sister as Gaila is. Hurt her and I'll hurt you," Arlene told him with a bright smile that betrayed her icy tone.

His eyes widened before he nodded, "Understood, Misses Kirk."

"Good, she likes you too much for us to actually do anything to you, anyway."

"You think?"

"She won't say it but that girl is crazy about you, she's just stubborn as all hell. Gets it from Winona. Thanksgiving with those two is always interesting. You'll see," she smiled. Leonard and Joanna were invited to spend Thanksgiving with the Kirks, Averys and the Sheriff's Department. He didn't know how that worked just yet but he'll find out in a few days.

"She's not the only stubborn one," Leonard chuckled.

"Oh, I know. Gaila's had you pegged since you got here."

"No kidding," George chuckled as he walked into the house. "Jim here?"

"Yep," Jim said with a wince as she walked into the room.

"Stop trying to talk, Jim," Leonard told her.

"I'll make you some tea but you should listen to our friendly neighborhood medical professional," Arlene smiled.

"Heard you need a new door," her brother said. "Do you want me to fix it or are you gonna do it yourself?" Jim looked at her brother and sighed.

"Sheriff had Hendorff nail it shut," Leonard answered for her. "She has some delusion that she's gonna go over there and fix it herself." Jim glared at him as Leonard and George shared a look. Jim shook her head.

"Too late," George chuckled. "You in, Doc?"

Leonard shrugged, "Sure, why not?"

* * *

"She's okay, man. Other than the whole voice thing," George said as Leonard glared at her kitchen. Not that the kitchen did anything to her, the memory was just too fresh.

"If she wasn't, would she actually tell us?" Leonard asked. Jim's brother shrugged but didn't say anything. "They didn't do some CSI type stuff in here?" Someone cleaned up the glass and the blood was gone. The only evidence that something happened was the cracked door frame and the bullet holes in the door.

"Knowing Chris, he probably did it himself," George said. "Small department and the last sheriff was an ass. Jim, Chris, Hikaru and, to a lesser extent, Gary, are the only ones with any formal forensics training. Everyone else is kinda just learning as they go. Chris'll get 'em all some real training eventually but they have to go one at a time and it has to be worked around stuff. Not enough people to do more than that."

"I'll admit; that takes some getting used to. I mean, Atlanta has a pretty decent sized police department."

"That's what Jim said when she did her training. There were more people in the classes than we had in the whole department. Can you hold this?"

"Yea," Leonard nodded and held the door while George unscrewed the last hinge holding it up. Leonard leaned the door against the wall. "This isn't as heavy as it looks."

"Would you believe me if I told you that Jim and Arlene put this door in themselves?"

"Yes. They're both tougher than they look and Gaila said Jim's handy like that."

"Chris' fault. When she worked at the jail, he taught her a bunch of stuff to occupy her time."

"So she wouldn't get into trouble," Leonard said.

George nodded, "We used to wish our mom had married him instead of Frank. Now, we're kinda glad she didn't."

"Why?" the southerner asked. George gave him a look. "I know about your step-dad."

"Good, she told you. Anyway, I'm glad that mom and Chris aren't together because we wouldn't be who we are if it wasn't for what happened with Frank. I also doubt Chris would still be in our lives. I know it's sounds crazy."

"It's not crazy. For instance, if my wife hadn't cheated on me, I wouldn't be here and I don't know how I feel about the possibility of never meeting all of you. Even Scotty."

"He's crazy," George chuckled.

"Yea but Jim says he's a good person and I can trust him," Leonard shrugged as George pried the old frame from the wall.

"He is that. Speak of the devil," the tall blonde said. The two men watched as an SUV pulled up and Scotty hopped out with a teenager, who Leonard assumed was Pavel Chekov based on Jim's description of him. "What are you doing here?"

"I heard about what happened to the lass, came to check on her. She okay?" Scotty asked.

"She's fine. She's over at my house. The good doctor and I are just fixing her door," George smiled.

"Do they know who it was?" the teen asked with a thick Russian accent. Definitely Pavel.

"They have an idea but no positive ID," George said and Leonard couldn't look at him. "You know who it is, don't you?"

"I don't. Whoever this guy is, he better hope like hell that I never do. If Jim doesn't kill him, I might," Leonard said. They all gave him a look. "I was here. I was out front and I almost left her here. If she hadn't forgotten her phone in my car…"

"You can't blame yourself, Doctor," Pavel said. "The man is obviously after something but you stopped him from hurting Jim."

"Yea, man. My sister is as tough as they come but the story I got from Pike is that you're the reason she's still breathing. It's not your fault or hers," George smiled.

"I swore an oath to heal people but I've never wanted to break it so much in my life," Leonard chuckled.

"Jim has that effect on people," Scotty smiled.

Leonard nodded, "I guess she does."

* * *

"She fell asleep," Joanna whispered when the guys got back to George and Arlene's. Jim was sleeping on the couch, her head on Jo's legs. "I don't think I've ever seen Miss Jim so…"

"Calm," Pavel said.

"Still," Scotty supplied.

"Quiet," Leonard and George said at the same time.

"I was actually gonna go with relaxed," Joanna chuckled, one of her hands playing with Jim's hair. "Though, she has been really quiet now that you mention it. What happened?"

"Bad guy tried to choke her. It made her throat sore and messed with her voice," Leonard told his daughter. "Hey," he looked at Arlene, "you got a warm compress." He didn't like the color of Jim's neck.

"Yea," Arlene nodded and left the room.

"You like Aunt Jim," Peter said. They all looked at him. "You do."

"Might. That okay with you?" Leonard asked.

"You're nice so it's okay. If you're not nice than we're gonna have a big problem," the kid told him, his arms crossed over his chest. "I know the sheriff's phone number by heart."

"I understand, Mister Kirk," Leonard nodded.

"The lad is a wee bit scary," Scotty chuckled.

"Taught him well," Jim squeaked out and her eyes went wide. "Ow."

"Don't talk. You'll just do more damage," Leonard told her as Arlene handed him a warm compress. "Here." He put the cloth on her neck. "Leave that there for a while. I should call Pike because I don't think you're going to work tomorrow." She glared at him. "I know you wanna catch this guy but you could do permanent damage to your vocal chords if you don't rest your voice. I'm sure the sheriff can come up with something but I seriously doubt he'll let you patrol and if you can't even answer the phone, there's no point in going into the office." Jim raised an eyebrow. "I don't care if you're pissed off. Deal with it."

"Would you look at that, someone else who speaks fluent 'Jim'," George chuckled. The woman in question looked at her brother. "I know. We'll talk about when Leonard says you can talk." She glared at them.

"Liar," Leonard chuckled. "You couldn't hate us if your life depended on it."


	15. Chapter 15

"It's really weird that you can't talk," Joanna said. Leonard leaned against the door to her room and watched as Jim braided his little girl's hair for church.

"Can. Just hurts," Jim rasped.

"I'm sorry, Miss Jim," Jo sighed.

"My fault," Jim told Jo.

"How?" his daughter asked.

"She wouldn't stop talking after I told her to rest her voice. Now she's stuck without a voice," he chuckled. Jim glared at him. "Don't look at me like that, I warned you." She raised an eyebrow. "So maybe it was my fault too."

"How?" Joanna asked.

"We had a fight," Leonard half-answered.

"But you're not fighting with each other anymore, right?" Joanna looked at him.

"No, we're not. I doubt Miss Jim would've stayed with us last night if we were," he chuckled.

As much as Jim wanted to go home, Sheriff Pike recommended that should she spend another night with Leonard. After a conversation with Jo, to make sure it was alright with her, Leonard talked Jim into staying with them. Not that he actually had to talk her into it. Jim didn't have it in her to fight with anyone about anything, she just nodded and went with it. After having dinner with the Kirks, plus Scotty and Pavel, Leonard took Jim and Jo home. He had intended to talk to Jim but the three of them fell asleep on the couch.

"Would've," Jim muttered.

"Really?" Leonard asked.

She gave him a nod as she finished Jo's hair and mouthed, "Safe with you."

"Are you getting all sappy on me?" he asked, trying to ignore the warmth that rolled through him since he knows that she doesn't feel safe with a lot of people. Jim rolled her eyes. "I won't tell anybody that Jimmy Kirk is such a girl." She smiled and slowly shook her head. "You can try to kick my butt if it'll make you feel better."

"I'll help you, Miss Jim," Joanna said. Jim and Jo gave each other a fist bump.

"You're supposed to be on my side," Leonard told his daughter.

Joanna shrugged, "Sisters before misters, daddy."

* * *

"Here comes trouble," George muttered at the end of Sunday service. Leonard followed his line of sight to the older woman heading their way and let out a quiet groan.

"Leonard. George. It's good to see you fine young men in church," she smiled.

"Misses Erving," both men nodded.

"Where are those sweet babies?" Misses Erving asked.

"They're over there with my sister and the sheriff," George said. Jim stopped to say hi to Pike, Jo and Peter went with her.

"I heard about what happened. I would say that that girl shouldn't be out in that big house all alone," Misses Erving said. "But after that mess with her step-daddy, I can't say I fault her for staying away from people. That man was a piece of work. Always yelling at them and grabbing her by her hair. Well, I don't have to tell George any of this. I still don't think it's safe for Jamison to be without a man in the house to protect her. "

"Actually, I was there and she did a good job of protecting herself," Leonard pointed out. He wasn't touching the sexism of that remark with a ten-foot pole.

Misses Erving looked at him, "You know what I mean, Leonard. I always thought she'd run off with the Leighton boy but she stayed. I don't know why."

"She wanted to stay," George said. Leonard was curious about who they could be talking about but he wasn't going to ask either of the people with him.

"Uh, I should probably collect Jim, Joanna and Peter. It was nice to see you, Misses Erving. George, we'll drop Pete off later," Leonard said with a smile.

"Keep him as long as you want, man," Jim's brother smiled as Leonard practically ran from his neighbor.

"Don't give me that look, Jim," Leonard heard Pike say as soon as he was close enough. "I'm not changing my mind."

"Hate you all," Jim said, her voice barely audible.

"No, you don't and stop talking," Leonard smiled. She looked at him, he could tell that she had something that she wanted to say but knew her voice wouldn't let her. Jim reached into her bag and grabbed her phone. She tapped out a message and sent it to him.

_He pulled me from the roster until Thurs. I may not have a voice but that doesn't mean I'm useless and I'm starting to feel that way. What the hell am I gonna do for three days if everyone is bitching about me being in my house and I can't go to work?_

"You can hang out with me and Jo," he reminded her.

_You have work and she has school._

"No, she has school Monday and Tuesday but not on Wednesday. Clinic's closed this week save for emergencies," the doctor sighed. The original plan was for the clinic to be open during Thanksgiving week but with no appointments scheduled, there wasn't a point. Leonard decided that he'll just make house calls for urgent care but that was it.

_Meanwhile, there's a murderer running around and I can't do anything about it._

"You'll catch him, Jim. Maybe the sheriff will let you have copies of everything so you can look it all over while your voice is healing. I'll even help," Leonard said, looking at Pike.

"We can do that," the sheriff nodded. "I can drop everything off at McCoy's later."

"See, that wasn't so hard," Leonard told her. "I know you're chomping at the bit but you need to rest your voice or it won't come back any time soon."

_I suppose that means I should just stay at your house._

"Would be safer than you being at home alone without the ability to call for help. It's up to you," Leonard smiled.

_You're annoyingly adorable right now_.

He smiled, "I know."

* * *

"What are you doing?" Leonard asked Jim when he walked into his kitchen. She was sitting at the table with a notebook.

_Trying to decide something_.

"Like what?" he asked.

_Like if I should give you something_.

"What would that something be?" Leonard gave her a look. Jim flipped to the back of the notebook and handed him two pieces of paper.

_Since I can't talk, you should read this._

"You wrote me a letter?" he asked, trying to figure out just when she had the time for this. Jim nodded and wrote something else in the notebook before turning it so he could see.

_I wrote it last week thinking that if I could get it all down I could ignore it so that I could sleep and work. Didn't actually help. I never planned on giving it to you but being without a voice I'm left with few options, this is the best I can do._

"If you want to just wait until you can talk, I won't mind."

_I want you to know. I'm a complicated mess who doesn't let people see what's going on in my head. That letter says more than I ever would._

"Should I read it now?" Leonard asked. She shrugged before pointing upstairs and leaving him in his kitchen. He sat down in the seat that she vacated at the table and unfolded the papers, finding Jim's small, neat handwriting in its mix of standard and cursive.

_Bones,_

_Where the hell do I start with this thing?_ _This letter is long overdue since it's all been tumbling around in my brain for weeks but I could never get up the nerve to say any of it. Yes, I'm aware that I talk a lot but you'll notice it's never really about my feelings. Hell, I do a damn good job of keeping those to myself, if I'm being honest. Since this is a piece of paper, I can say whatever I want and you can't do that scowl thing that you do. Well, you can but I don't think it'll have the same effect. Anyway, I decided that writing what I'm thinking would be best. It might be a bit jumbled but that's me. So_ _here goes._

_What exactly is a girl to do when a hot doctor moves into town? Drool. Then decide that he's way too good for you and resign yourself to being his friend. Which worked out spectacularly, mind you (That was half sarcastic, just so you know). I honestly don't get how we ended up being so close. I mean, you're really awesome and I'm really not. Some people might actually consider me to be crazy. Most of the time, you probably consider me to be crazy. Not that I blame you because I probably am. God, this harder than I thought._

_Silver lining; that I'm not nearly as screwed up as I spent my life thinking I was. Thanks for that, by the way. I mean, I have some friends, don't get me wrong, but none of them were really brave enough to go digging into my psyche. I still haven't figured out why you care but you do and I'm grateful for it. Other than one failed attempt at having a normal relationship, I've never been one to put myself out there. The more someone knows about you, the easier it is to hurt you and I didn't want to give someone that chance. I figured that the best way to keep my heart from being broken was to do all the breaking. Then you happened._

_At first I was confused. I didn't really know what I wanted. I didn't know if I wanted to take a chance, which is saying a lot because you know I'll do just about anything at least once. I decided that being your friend would be better for the both of us since we're both a little bit messed up in our own ways, me more than you, but the more time we spent together, the closer we got and it became obvious that this connection we have isn't a fluke. I see the best parts of myself when I'm with you. I'm reminded of the person I could've been before I built all the damn walls I use to protect myself from getting hurt. And I realized that the reason I could never give my heart to someone is because it was always meant for you. Yes, that was sappy as hell but since you aren't actually reading this, I don't care._

_You. You are so amazing and I don't even think you realize it. The depth with which you love others, even though you pretend you don't, is nothing short of inspiring. The loyalty that you have for the people you care about is like nothing I've ever seen before. And your integrity is why I have an unending respect for you. Even when you're at your breaking point, you keep going. I wish I was half the person you are sometimes. Then I figure that that would be a bit much so the idea goes away. You understand what I'm saying, at least, I hope so. You, Leonard Horatio McCoy, are quite possibly the best person I know._

_I take that back, you're the second best. Joanna has you beat, hands down. I guess that's your fault too. She's so much like you it's insane. I love watching you together. You're so loving and patient with her and she looks at you like you slayed all the dragons and hung the stars in the sky. As someone who never got the chance to meet my father, I know how important your relationship with each other is. I'm grateful for every minute of it that I get to see._

_I can admit that I'm kind of terrified (I get scared a lot more than I like to admit) writing this but I figured you should know. I don't know what to do about the feelings of wholeness and happiness that I feel when you're close. Usually I just say whatever randomness I can to fill silences but I think you've started to figure that out too. While I have some idea of what your feelings might be, I don't actually know. Just do me a favor; don't tell me until you're ready to._

_Jim_

Leonard had to read the letter twice before any of it sunk in. She loves him. Not that she wrote those exact words in the letter but he didn't need to be a genius to read between the lines. Jim, who doesn't open up to anyone, poured her heart out to him. What's more, it wasn't the random bullshit that usually comes flying out of her mouth. Leonard glanced at the kids in the living room playing a video game before he went upstairs.

Jim was laying along the bottom of his bed, her eyes were closed and she had a heat pack on her neck. He stared at her for a long moment. She had changed her clothes, looking much more comfortable in jeans than she did in the skirt she wore to church. Jim's hands were resting on her stomach and she was tapping out something with her fingers before she grabbed her phone and typed something. His phone beeped.

_Not nice to stare._

"It's not like you didn't know I was here. Throat bothering you?" he asked, stepping into the room and sitting down next to her head. She tapped out a message and showed it to him.

_Not too bad._ Jim smiled, her eyes opening. _Hi_

"Hey, darlin'. I read your letter."

_Figured. Too long for me to say at the moment. Not that I actually would. I'm not that brave._

This sucked. Part of Jim's charm is that she never stops talking. She mutters things to herself or goes off on tangents when her brain runs away with her thoughts. Right now, she was practically muzzled and not only did it make her miserable but he missed hearing her normal voice. Leonard couldn't help but feel responsible and it must've been written all over his face. She poked his leg.

_Not your fault, Bones._

"If I remember correctly, I made you talk to me," Leonard said with a small smile.

Jim let out a snort. _Can't make me do anything. Big girl, could've said no. Just didn't want to._

"You are a stubborn little shit," he chuckled.

_Like that's news to you... or anyone in the county._ She smiled at him before sending another message. _You okay?_

"Why wouldn't I be?" Leonard asked.

_You were worried about me._

"That's not really new. I'm not too worried at the moment, though. You're here, you're more or less alright. You love me," he sighed. Jim's eyes widened and she opened her mouth. "Don't. You didn't have to say it. What I can't figure out is why you went out with that Finney guy."

_Lonely._ Jim shrugged. _I was around you all the time and it was like torture. Tried to be normal. Didn't work. You're amazing and I'm a mess. A pathetic mess with trust and abandonment issues._

"Not pathetic. We all have our problems. At least you weren't in denial," Leonard pointed out.

_So, what now?_

"Since neither of us is working tomorrow, how about we do something?"

_Like a date?_

"Yea, a date. What do you say?" he asked.

_I can't say anything. Doctor's orders._

"You know what I mean, smartass."

_I would love to go on a date with you, Bones._


	16. Chapter 16

"You guys really should've just slept in your bed," Joanna chuckled as she stood over him. He was about to ask her what she was talking about when the weight on his chest shifted.

That first night aside, Leonard wasn't actually in the practice of bringing people home, not that there was anyone to bring. He sure as hell wouldn't do that with Joanna there. He gave Jim his room and took the couch, despite how much he wanted to sleep in there with her. For some reason, Jim was laying on him.

"Maybe we should've," he whispered with a small smile. "How the hell did I end up being Jim's pillow?"

"I have no idea," his daughter smirked as she headed into the kitchen.

"Nightmare," Jim whispered against his chest. "Sorry."

"Whispering is worse for your voice than talking, just so you know. Don't be sorry, I'm happy I could be of service, Miss Jim," Leonard smiled and she smiled back. "How about you go get ready while I take Joanna to school?" She nodded before pressing a quick kiss on his chin and hopping off the couch.

"Are you guys a thing now?" his daughter asked when he walked into the kitchen.

"It's complicated," he admitted.

"Only because you're making it complicated, daddy," Joanna smiled as she sat down with a bowl of that apple cinnamon oatmeal she loves. "Just go with the flow."

"When did you become a relationship expert?"

"I don't know. It's your fault."

"This I gotta hear. How is it my fault?"

"I just watch how you are with people that you care about. Especially the ladies in your life," his daughter shrugged.

"Other than you, there are no ladies in my life," he chuckled.

"That's not even remotely true. You said that if I ever like a boy to watch how his is with his mama. You would do anything nana asks of you with a smile on your face because you love her so much. You could've been mean about mama but you treat her with respect and you talk to her, even when you don't want to. With Miss Gaila and Miss Arlene, you treat 'em like you would if you had a sister or two. I guess that's the best way to describe it. You don't like Miss Winona but I think that has to do with something that happened to Miss Jim, who you really like. A lot."

"I do like Miss Jim. If, hypothetically…"

"Don't do hypotheticals. You wanna go on a date with her," Joanna smiled.

"Would that be okay with you, if I went on a date with Jim?" Leonard asked.

"I've been trying to set you two up since September, what do you think?" his daughter asked with a touch of sarcasm that reminded him of himself. "Yes, it's okay with me. Date her. Marry her, for all I care. Just do _something_. You guys are driving us all crazy."

"Who is this us?"

"Me, Miss Gaila, Miss Arlene, Mister Scotty, even Mister George. Miss Gaila said she was ready to lock you two in a room."

"She did not," he said. Jo just gave him a look. "Really?" She nodded as she finished her breakfast. "Huh."

"Miss Jim's not mama. I don't think she has it in her to hurt the people she cares about. At least, not on purpose," Joanna said.

"I used to think that about your mother, if I'm being honest."

"Mama made a mistake. A big mistake, but still a mistake. That's not Miss Jim's fault. As a matter of fact, Miss Jim really likes you. Which is kinda a big deal because Pete said he's never seen her like this with anyone. Ever."

"I didn't know that."

"Yep. Look, I know you're worried but you shouldn't let mama's actions determine the rest of your life," Jo sighed.

"When did you get so smart, huh?"

She shrugged, "You're the one who told me that I could be anything. I chose to be smart. And a superhero."

* * *

"So, since you can't talk, I decided to take you to the one place where that's not a problem," Leonard said as they got out of his car. "As a matter of fact, it's actually a rule." Jim gave him a big smile. She pointed at herself, made a heart with her hands, then pointed at the Iowa City Public Library. "Then I chose well." She nodded. "Come on."

Anyone who has ever been in Jim's house knows the woman is a bibliophile. She loves to read, and not just anything, she loves real books. Jim and Pike actually knocked out the wall between her living room and family room/office and turned it in to a two-sided bookcase. She told him once that the way the paper feels under her fingertips is just as important as the words on the page. Leonard knew that Jim went to the library in Washington, near her office, all the time so, he decided that they could explore the library in Iowa City a bit. Jim's obviously been here before but she didn't seem to mind one bit.

"Where should we start?" Leonard whispered just as his phone vibrated.

_You pick a book. I'll pick a book. We meet upstairs next to the reference desk in fifteen._

He smiled and nodded. Jim kissed his cheek and left him to go looking for a book. What should he pick? Something he's never read before? Something he's read a million times? Leonard avoided the mystery section, they had enough of that going on, and headed to fiction. Jim spotted him, gave him a wink and rounded the corner. Leonard followed her as she scanned the books on the shelves in the next row. She glanced at him but didn't stop what she was doing.

"I think I found what I was looking for," he whispered in Jim's ear, his arm wrapping around her waist. She smiled and tapped out a message on her phone.

_You're supposed to be looking for a book, Bones._

"You're much more interesting, darlin'," Leonard whispered. Jim's ears turned pink. "Are you blushing?"

_I do that._

"How is it that I never noticed that?" he asked. Jim pointed to her hair. Leonard thought about every she turned her head away from him or looked at her feet and realized why she did that. "You don't have to hide from me."

_Habit. I'm working on it._

She put her phone back in her pocket and moved to the next set of shelves. He smiled before he started reading a few of the book titles and spotted something he hadn't read in a while. He looked around for a few more minutes before he headed upstairs. Jim just barely beating him there. "What now?"

Jim held her hand out and he gave her the book. _Slaughterhouse-Five_. She smiled and gave him a thumbs up before handing him the book she found. _The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy_. That's another one he hadn't read in a long time. Jim grabbed his hand and pulled him to a partially hidden alcove with a couch. The pair shrugged off their jackets, got comfortable and snuggled up together to read their books.

* * *

"You're gonna get sick," Leonard said with a smile. Jim shook her head and stuck her tongue out, trying to catch snowflakes. She gave him a look and raised an eyebrow. "I'm from Atlanta, I went to Ole Miss and Baylor, what do you think?" Jim smiled and sent him a text.

_That you're a super southerner. A Georgian who went to college in Mississippi and med school in Texas. This really the first time you've seen snow?_

"Yes, this is the first time I've seen snow."

_You should be more excited._

"About frozen rain?" he asked. Jim gave him a look. "I'm kidding."

They stayed at the library for a few hours before they grabbed lunch and headed home. The snow started while they were driving back. Jim stopped him from going into the house so that she could take his picture. She sent it to him with a message.

_Bones' first snow._

"Wait until I show my mother," he chuckled.

_Totally should. Just wait until it starts to stick._

"We'll see," Leonard smiled and watched her chase more snowflakes with her tongue. "Infant."

_Maybe but you're the one staring at me._

"I really wanna kiss you but Misses Erving is watching us." He noticed his neighbor's window treatments shift a few times since they pulled up. Jim smiled and shook her head before pointing to his house. Leonard unlocked his door while Jim read messages on her phone. She pouted. "What?" Jim shook her head. "You're not gonna tell me?"

"Work," she mouthed.

"Is it bad?" he asked as they stepped into the house. Jim made a so-so motion with her hand before pulling off her jacket, scarf and hat. "You'll figure it out." She smiled and put her hand on his chest after he hung their stuff by the door. "You'll figure me out?" Jim nodded. "I'm pretty sure you have, darlin'." She tapped out a message on her phone and showed it to him.

_We shall see. U wanna make out til it's time 2 get Jo?_

"That is a wonderful idea," Leonard whispered as he pulled her into his arms. Jim smiled and pressed a kiss against his lips just as there was a knock at the door. Jim laughed. "What?"

"Misses Erving," she mouthed. Leonard gave her a quick kiss before he let her go and answered the door.

"Leonard," Misses Erving smiled. Jim was right, it was his neighbor.

"Ma'am," he smiled back. "Would you like to come in?"

"That's very kind of you, perhaps another time. I was doing some decorating for the holiday and I could use some help," Misses Erving told him. "Would you mind?"

He really wanted to say no but his mama would come up from Georgia just to kick his ass. Leonard smiled, "Not at all, ma'am. Uh… Jim?"

"I'll get Jo from school. Go," Jim mouthed.

He smiled as he grabbed his jacket. "I'll be back."

* * *

"That woman is nuts," Leonard said as soon as he closed the front door. Jim and Joanna looked up at him from where they were sitting on the floor doing Jo's homework. "She tried to kiss me."

"Who?" Joanna asked as Jim burst into laughter.

"That's not funny, Jim," he said. She nodded and laughed even harder.

"Who, daddy?" Jo asked him.

"Misses Erving," Leonard chuckled as he pulled off his jacket. "I don't know what to do about that woman. She said that we had some kind of connection. That she prayed to God and he sent me as the answer to her prayers." Jim laughed even harder, tears running down her face. "This is not… funny." He couldn't help but laugh with her. "She tried to kiss me."

"The lips," Jim mouthed as he dropped onto the couch.

"Oh, yea?" he asked and Jim nodded. "She's still crazy."

"I think you're all crazy," Joanna smiled.

Leonard smiled, "You're a kid, it's what you're supposed to think."

* * *

"What's wrong?" Leonard asked Jim when he saw the look on her face after dinner. She pulled up the notepad on her laptop.

_I don't fit._

"What does that mean?" he looked at her.

_Jan lived alone in a secluded house. Beth was alone at the school after hours all the time. Both women worked with children and neither would hurt a fly. I'm not like them. I live on a property with a bunch of people coming and going. The sheriff has a key to my house. I'm almost always carrying a gun. Attacking me doesn't fit. So, that begs the question; was I the actual target, did the suspect make a mistake or are we missing something all together?_

"That is the question. Hopefully, we'll find the answer soon. I'm really not sold on you going back that house alone," Leonard sighed.

_I'll be fine once I get my voice back._

"Doesn't make me feel better."

_I know but I can't just move into your house. If we go too fast, we'll hate each other by the end of the month and you know it. Maybe I'll get a dog or something._

"Oh, please, you barely feed yourself every day. What are you gonna do with a dog?"

_I'm not that bad, Bones._

He smiled, "If you say so."


	17. Chapter 17

"And now we can get this party started," George said as Jim, Hendorff and Sulu walked into the main house on the Kirk farm on Thanksgiving.

"Don't get too excited, Gary's parking his cruiser," Sulu chuckled as Gaila let out a groan.

"Are you guys ever gonna let that go?" Chris -as the sheriff insisted to be called- asked.

"No," Sulu, the Kirks and the Averys all said in unison.

"The only reason he's allowed over here right now is because holidays are truce days," Elaine Avery said with a chuckle. Her husband, Robert, just nodded.

"I don't get it. What happened?" Leonard asked.

"I cheated," Gary said as he walked into the house and shook the snow off his jacket. "I was drinking and it was stupid and I've been apologizing for it for four years. They have the right to be mad. So do you, if you want."

"I'm done being mad at people for the shit they pull," the southerner said, glad that the kids were watching movies in George's old room.

"Uh huh," Jim chuckled. Her voice wasn't one hundred percent but it was back. Leonard could admit that his missed it.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Leonard looked at her.

"You bitch and moan when people do stupid stuff all the time. You were bitching at me for getting hurt," she smiled.

"And me," Scotty added.

"It's one of your most infuriating yet endearing qualities, Bonesy," Jim told him. He looked at her but he didn't say anything. She just smiled at him.

"Wait a second," George looked at Jim, then Leonard, then back at Jim. "Are you guys _together_?"

"Are we?" Jim asked with a smirk as she looked up at him.

"We're, uh… We're an us," Leonard said with smile. They hadn't actually put a title on it so that was the best he could do.

"Ha, I bloody knew it," Scotty laughed.

"Greg and Ru, pay up," Gaila smiled. "I told you."

"Da," Chekov said. "So did I."

"You guys were betting on us, Red?" Jim asked.

"Of course we were. Nothing better to do around here," Gaila shrugged.

"I wasn't but only because I already knew," Arlene said.

"You knew?" a bunch of people asked her at once.

"I figured it before everyone else did, including them," Arlene smiled.

"Why don't we have a chat, Leonard?" Chris said with a smile. Jim stood between the two men. "I'm not gonna hurt him, Jim."

"Tommy Leighton," Jim, Gaila, George, Arlene and Winona all said at the same time.

"Who?" Leonard asked, remembering the name from that conversation on Sunday.

"My prom date… sorta," Jim said. "Wasn't much of a date thanks to Chris."

"What'd you do, sheriff?" Leonard looked at the other man.

"Scared Tommy half to death the day before prom," Gaila chuckled.

"He barely danced with me and I didn't even get a kiss goodnight. Come to find out that Chris threatened him within an inch of his life. Told him that he couldn't touch me or he'd loose his arm," Jim chuckled.

"Ouch," Hendorff shook his head. "That's cold."

"Whatever happened to him?" Arlene asked.

"He lives in New York or something. Got married, had a bunch of kids. His folks moved to Florida," Winona said.

"I almost went with him," Jim sighed.

"Why didn't you?" Leonard asked.

"Didn't feel right. He was nice and all but I just couldn't do it. Probably a good thing. I was more of a mess then than I am now and I would've brought Tommy all kinds of pain. Can you imagine me, younger and with fewer morals, in a place like New York City?"

"That wouldn't've ended well," George nodded.

"Chris still ruined my prom, though. I should've just taken Sam," Jim smiled.

"I was looking out for you, kiddo," Chris told her.

"I don't need you to look out for me on this one," Jim said with a smile. "Besides, Bones already got a shovel talk from his daughter."

George smiled, "And my wife and my son. Hell, I'm not even gonna give him the talk."

"Why not?" Gaila asked.

"Because I'm actually more worried about her hurting him than the other way around," the older Kirk sibling said to the shock of everyone, including Leonard. The tall blonde smiled when he looked at the southerner. "I grew up with Jim, I know how she can get. While she would never intentionally hurt someone she cares about, she can be a bit extreme when it comes to certain things. Besides, if you hurt her, she can handle it herself."

"Finally, someone with faith in me," Jim chuckled.

"I have faith in you," Leonard reminded her.

"I know you do," Jim smiled.

"Get a room," Arlene told them.

"I have one, don't tempt me to use it," Jim told her sister-in-law with a smile.

"Fine, I'll do this here," Chris said and the whole room went silent, which was ominous as hell. "You have a daughter, Leonard. The love you have for her is like nothing else in the universe. I love Jim like she's my own. As a father, I'm sure you can use your imagination if anything happens to her."

"Yes, sir, I can," Leonard nodded. That wasn't as bad as he thought it would be, then again, they were in a room full of people.

"Good. Now, Jim," Chris said. She pointed to herself. "Yes, you. I know you better than I you know yourself. Leonard is a good man who cares a lot about you, so don't fuck it up. I'll kick your ass if you do."

"Did Chris really just give me a shovel talk?" Jim asked.

"Yep," Gaila chuckled. "His wasn't as cool as mine."

"You didn't?" Arlene asked her sister.

"Of course I did. Someone has to have the doc's back and since I'm the first friend he made in Riverside, the job fell to me. Besides, I promised his mother I'd keep an eye on him," the redhead shrugged.

"Really?" Leonard looked at her.

"Yes. She's a nice lady. I got to chat with her when she called you at the clinic," Gaila smiled.

"Hers wasn't as bad as Spock's," Jim muttered.

" _Spock_?" George asked.

"Yea. It wasn't a full-on shovel talk, just some advice," Jim told her brother.

"I never would've guessed that one," Leonard said.

"He's not as emotionally clueless as he lets on," Gaila smiled. "Granted, he doesn't pick up on social cues like the rest of us but he's observant and other than Scotty, Jim's his only friend."

"He thinks she's as bat-shit crazy as I am but he also thinks she's bloody brilliant when she has something to focus it on. It's the one thing we all have in common," Scotty smiled.

"Barely. I'm nowhere near as smart as you or him," Jim chuckled. Scotty rolled his eyes. "Now, are we doing this thing or what?"

"Yea, yea. I need arms, so George, Greg and Leonard, you're with me. Gaila and Pavel, can you set the table? Everyone else; the extra chairs," Arlene said, ordering them all around just as a loud tone went through the room. Jim, Chris and the deputies all put their hands over the radios that they had attached to their normal clothes. The sheriff must've given them a break on wearing their uniforms on duty for the holiday.

"I'll take it," Chris said.

"You sure, Sheriff? I can go," Gary offered.

"Na, I got it. Sit down and eat. One of you can take the next one," the sheriff said as he pulled on his coat before he spoke into his radio. "Seventy-five-one to dispatch; show me responding."

* * *

"What's wrong?" Leonard whispered. Jim shook her head. "You're a crappy liar. What's wrong?"

"Nothing, Bones," she said with a small smile just as Joanna returned to her seat and handed Leonard his phone.

"Mama said hi," Jo smiled. Leonard nodded and glanced at Jim.

"Are you jealous?" Leonard whispered into her ear. She just shrugged. "There's no reason to be."

"I can't exactly help it. And you got your nerve," Jim whispered back. "Stop glaring at Sulu."

He rolled his eyes, "Why should I? He's the one who keeps looking at you."

"Sulu," she said.

"Sup, Jim?" the new sergeant looked at her.

"How's the boyfriend?" Jim asked.

"He's good, says hi," Sulu said with a big smile.

Leonard raised an eyebrow, "Sulu is…"

"Gayer than Christmas. His boyfriend lives in Milwaukee. Nobody outside this house knows, not even his parents. He's not looking at me, Doctor Hottie," she wiggled her eyebrows with a chuckle.

"Stop it," he chuckled.

"Whatever you say, Bonesy," Jim smiled just as her radio crackled to life. Leonard couldn't hear what was being said but the look on Jim's face told him that something was very wrong. "Seventy-five-two to seventy-five-one," Jim said into her radio. She waited a beat before she repeated herself. "Seventy-five-two to seventy-five-one; come in Sheriff." Again, she got nothing. "Seventy-five-two to dispatch; I need a status on the sheriff."

" _Dispatch to seventy-five-two; sheriff is not resp… Seventy-five-two we're getting an alert from his radio_ ," the person on the other end said.

"Dispatch; I need his last known. Show seventy-five-two, four, six, seven and fourteen responding. Be advised we are plainclothes," Jim said into her radio as she, Sulu, Mitchell, Hendorff and Scotty got up from the table. Leonard figured that Scotty must be a member of the department's reserve component since there were only ten full-time sworn officers and his identifier was higher than that.

" _Seventy-five-eight responding as well, dispatch_ ," someone said on the radio.

"What does that mean?" Leonard asked.

"All the radios have a panic button. Sounds like Chris hit his. Means he needs help. Might be hurt," Gaila said as she stood up, worry etched into her features. "I'm gonna head over to the fire station and grab the ambulance." Leonard glanced at his daughter before he glanced at Arlene, who nodded.

"Jim, I'm coming with you," Leonard said as he stood up and grabbed his jacket. She looked at him. "If he's hurt, you're gonna want me there."

Jim thought about it for half a second before she nodded, "You wear a vest, you stay behind me and you do what you're told or so help me…"

"You'll kick my ass, I know," Leonard said as they jogged to Jim's cruiser.

"Keep calling for him. I'm seventy-five-two, he's seventy-five-one," she told him as they got into the car and she sped off the property.

"Seventy-five-two to seventy-five-one," Leonard said in the radio as Jim drove like a bat out of hell. "Nothing."

"Keep trying," Jim said. Leonard did what she asked, keeping an eye on her as he did. She was more worried than he's ever seen her and that's saying a lot since someone attacked her in her house six days ago. Jim pulled up behind Pike's Expedition at some out of the way warehouse that looked like it's been abandoned for years.

"What is this place?"

"Used to be an auto repair shop. Closed ten years ago and nobody bought the building. Usually, we're kicking kids outta here every few days," she told him as she went to her trunk, pulled on her vest and tossed him a small medical bag.

"Here, man," Gary said as he handed Leonard a vest. His didn't have the Sheriff patches that Jim and the guys had but other than that it was the same.

"Is all that necessary?" Leonard asked when he noticed that Sulu and Hendorff had assault rifles.

"We don't actually know, so it's better to be prepared," Jim said as another car pulled up. She looked at the deputy. "Jacobs, take the back with Sulu and Scotty. Mitch and Cupcake you're with me. Bones…"

"Stay behind you," the doctor nodded.

This was fucking surreal. Leonard had to chalk it up to being in a small town, there were only so many people to do so many things. He never thought in a million years that he'd be running into an active crime scene with a bunch of deputies, one of which, he was dating. Leonard took a deep breath as they got themselves set outside the door. Jim counted down from three with her fingers, as soon as she got to zero, Hendorff went through the door, Jim right behind him. Leonard did what he was told and stayed behind her and in front of Mitchell.

"Door, left," Hendorff said.

Jim checked the room, "Left, clear."

"Got blood," the big guy Jim refers to as Cupcake said. Leonard spotted the trail of red on the ground.

"I see it," Jim muttered.

"Sheriff?" Gary called. They all heard a groan.

"Body," Hendorff told them. Jim gave him the okay and Leonard checked the girl's pulse.

"She's dead, Jim," Leonard sighed as he closed the poor girl's eyes. She couldn't have been any older than Jim. "You know her? What am I saying? Of course you do."

"Marla McGivers. History teacher at the junior high," she sighed as they kept moving.

" _Jim, we found him. You better get the doc back here_ ," Sulu said over the radio.

"Copy that," Jim said.

As soon as Hendorff called 'all clear', they met up with the others. Scotty and Sulu were doing their damnedest to stop Chris' bleeding. Leonard pulled on gloves and joined them. Chris was wearing his vest but that didn't seem to matter, he had a bunch of stab wounds on his back and his side and he lying in a puddle of blood. Leonard started with his ABCs. Chris was still talking, all be it a little slurred, so Leonard knew his airway was clear. He was breathing faster than he should've been but he was breathing. His blood pressure was shit, his pulse was fast and thready and he was a pale as a ghost. So much for circulation.

"He's going into shock. I can almost guarantee that his liver is a mess. I need to get him out of here before he bleeds to death," Leonard told Jim as he cut off the bottom of the sheriff's shirt to see what he was working with.

"Tried to help her," the sheriff mumbled as Leonard tried to stop the bleeding.

"We know you did," Jim said as she held Chris' head until they could get a collar on him. "You did good, old man."

"Liar," Chris muttered.

"I need you to move your hands," the doctor said to Scotty. "Put 'em right there." Scotty shifted to where Leonard told him while Sulu helped secure the padding down. Unfortunately, Chris was bleeding through them faster than they could apply them, which was bad. Very, very bad. Leonard started an IV, which was made harder by Chris' crappy circulation, and cursed under his breath that the medical kit from the cruiser didn't have any pain meds in it. "Where the hell is Gaila?"

"I'm here," she said as she ran in with a stretcher, a backboard and a medical bag. "Holy shit."

"No kidding," Leonard said. "Please tell me you're not alone and that bag has morphine in it."

"I'm not, Pavel's turning the ambulance around so we can peel out of here. And yes, I have meds. Where do you need me?" the redhead asked.

"He's tankin'. We have to get him outta here," Leonard told her. Gaila nodded as she -plus Jim, Scotty, Sulu and Jacobs- helped get the Sheriff secured and into the ambulance. Sulu took over driving while Pavel jumped into the back to help Leonard and Gaila.

"We'll meet you at the hospital," Jim said.

"Take your time, I'm taking him straight to the OR," Leonard told her as he hopped into the back of the ambulance.

"Okay," she muttered.

He looked at her, "Jim, I got him, darlin'."


	18. Chapter 18

"You have this look on your face like you're about to tell me something that I don't wanna hear," Jim said as Leonard and Doctor Piper walked into the waiting area where Jim, Gaila and just about everyone else Leonard knew -and then some- was waiting for news.

"Sheriff Pike sustained…" Piper started.

"Who are you?" Jim asked.

"I'm Doctor Piper, the new Head of Surgery, Miss…"

Jim rolled her eyes, "Bones, how is he?"

"He crashed on us a few times but we managed to get him back. He has damage to his T-twelve and L-one vertebra, we won't know how bad it is until he's awake but there may be deficits. That is the good news. Bad news is that his liver was Swiss cheese. We've resected it but there haven't been any marked improvements. He's gonna need a transplant or he won't last the next couple of days," Leonard sighed. He warned Piper to just tell her straight up what was going on but the man wouldn't listen. Idiot.

"What are our options?" she asked.

"Limited. Unless someone dies in the next few hours…" Piper told her.

"Living donor's our best bet," Leonard cut the other man off.

"He doesn't have a family, McCoy, that's not gonna happen," Piper said.

"He has us. We might not be blood but we're still his family. What's it gonna take?" George stood up, that Kirk determination clear as day on his face.

"Given the urgent nature, a battery of tests that have be completed on top of each other," Piper said.

Leonard rolled his eyes, "A medical exam, psych consult, blood and urine tests and a blood compatibility test. Plus, HLA… its a genetic test. We don't have a ton of time, so best match will go straight to surgery. We'll take out a portion of the liver and transplant it into Chris. Donor will stay in the hospital for a week, post-op."

"I'll do the tests," George said before his sister could offer, giving her a look like he knew she was going to say it.

"Me too," Jacobs added.

"So will I," Gary nodded.

"I would if I could," Sulu said. "Wrong blood type."

"Same here," Hendorff sighed.

"Will that work?" Jim asked.

"That'll work. I hope," Leonard said before he called Nurse Chapel over. "I need three living donor workups on a rush. It's for Sheriff Pike's liver."

"I will personally get them started," the nurse nodded. "Come on, guys."

"He also needs blood. So will the person who donates their liver. We're exhausting our supply," Leonard said.

"He has some stored down at county," Jim said. "So, do I. We're the same blood type, he can have it. And I'm sure the guys don't mind donating their blood if they aren't picked for surgery."

"I'll call down to county and take care of that," Piper nodded.

"Let me know when they're done. Hendorff, nobody goes in to see Chris unless Bones gives you the okay," Jim said. The big guy nodded and headed to Chris' room.

"What are you gonna do?" Leonard asked her.

"Call in some of the people on the reserve roster. All nine of us are on duty and we're gonna need to get some rest eventually," Jim sighed. "I called Spock already. He's in the air right now so he should be back soon."

"Spock?"

"His dad is the Canadian Ambassador to the US, lives in the embassy in Seattle. Spock's the reserve lieutenant, I need his brain power," she told him. "Hey, keep me posted on Chris' status. Sulu, you're with me."

"You're leaving?" Piper asked her.

"With Chris here, I'm in command of the Washington County Sheriff's Department. I have a dead girl and my boss might be joining her soon. As much as I want to stay here, I have a job to do. The best chance I have at finding this guy is figuring out just happened in that warehouse," Jim said.

"Do you know who has the authority to make decisions for him?" Piper asked.

"I do. I'm Chris' listed next of kin," she told Piper before looking at Leonard. "Bones, do whatever you deem necessary."

"Okay. Just…" Leonard looked at her. "Please be careful."

"I'll do my best."

* * *

"How's he doing?" George whispered.

"They're getting him into recovery," Leonard sighed. "He's stable. Stopped trying to die on us. How do you feel?"

"Like I just had surgery," the blonde chuckled. "Where's Ari?"

"Getting coffee. Your mother's here too. Your in-laws are at your house with Pete and Jo."

"Has Jim checked in?"

"Sulu called. He's keeping an eye on her for us," the southerner chuckled, then yawned. It's been a very long day and it's still not over.

"She's gonna kill this guy. Going after her was one thing but Chris… For all intents and purposes, that man is our dad. Jim would walk to the ends of the Earth to protect him. Hell, she's do that for all of us but him in particular."

"I wanna kill this guy just for putting his hands on her, so I can only imagine what's going through her head right now."

"You and me both. Just do me a favor," George said. "Don't let her loose herself in all this. Jim can become laser-focused when she sets her mind to something. I don't have to tell you that, you've seen glimpses of it already. With me and Chris in the hospital, someone is gonna have to reign her in."

Leonard nodded, "I'll watch her back, I promise."

* * *

"Give me something I can work with," Jim yelled as Leonard walked into the Washington County Sheriff's station at almost three in the morning.

"I would if we had something. Stop yelling at me," Sulu yelled back.

"I fuckin' hate this," Jim groaned.

"You all need sleep. And you should probably start from scratch," Leonard said and everyone standing in the station looked at him. "Start over. Jim, the other day, you told me that you didn't fit. Marla and Chris don't fit either. Drop the obviousness of Chris' gender and what's left?"

"Five people who spent most of their time alone," Gary said.

"Excluding Jim and Chris, they all worked with kids," Jacobs said.

"Excluding Marla and Chris, they're all blonde and blue-eyed," Scotty added.

"Location," Jim said as she looked at the board with the case information on it. "Jan was in her house. Beth was at the school. I was in my house. Why was Marla in an abandoned building?"

"It's a secondary," Gary said. "Probably attacked her somewhere else and took her there."

"It was an ambush," Sulu said. "What if, and this might be way outta left field, but what if that call that we got over the radio was meant for you?"

"Why me?" Jim asked.

"Because you are the one who evaded him," Spock said as he and Nyota walked into the room. "Perhaps he assumed that you would respond, you were on duty."

"See a body on the ground, go in, he's got you. Other than the bloody teenagers who go out there to smoke, nobody goes over there," Scotty nodded.

"Still doesn't explain how it jumped from a science teacher, a school nurse and a history teacher to me and Chris," Jim sighed.

"Maybe the answer is in that," Nyota said. "Is there a chance that he's not after you and you're just in the way?"

"He attacked her in her house," Sulu said.

"I think that's the lass' point. What if the attack at her house was a mistake and the ambush was to get her out of the way?" Scotty said.

"Attacking someone in their own home is one hell of a mistake. Who would he have been after on Jim's property if it wasn't Jim?" Leonard asked.

"Oh, you brilliant, brilliant men. That's it. That's... He's not after me," Jim said.

"He tried to strangle you in your kitchen. Please tell me I missed something," Sulu said.

"You did. We all did. He's not after me because he's after Winona," Jim told them.

"You think he's after your mother?" Deputy Stiles asked.

Jim nodded, "We both live alone on the same property. She used to be a teacher, still subs sometimes."

"You look just like her. It's an easy mistake to make, I did it when I first met Winona," Leonard added. "This guy ain't local. Can't be."

"How do you figure that, Doctor McCoy?" Stiles looked at him.

"Because everyone who lives in Riverside knows that Winona lives in the big house, even though I own it, and that I live the smaller house. We've been looking at this the wrong way. I thought that because I'm the odd woman out that he was after me but I think I'm just an honest mistake," Jim said.

"A mistake that this guy can't afford to have. He killed Marla and took her out to an abandoned building in order to get us all out there," Jacobs sighed. "But nobody attacked your mother."

"She's at the hospital with Harper. Hendorff was there before that and you all know that he's a brick wall," Sulu sighed. "Who would want to hurt Miss Winona?"

"I might have an idea but there's nothing we can do about it right now," Jim groaned.

"Why's that, lass?" Scotty asked.

"Because the person I need to talk to is in prison and I can't see him for another five hours. Sulu, update Harper. Winona said she was staying the night at the hospital. He'll have to keep an eye out for any craziness. Everyone who's been here all day can go home. Spock, I need five minutes of your time," Jim sighed.

"Cut her off at five minutes, Spock. She's been on duty for twenty-one hours and I'm 'bout ready to toss her over my shoulder," Leonard said. She gave him a look. "Don't look at me like that, I'm serious. Five minutes, then I'm draggin' you outta here."

"I'd like to see you try," Jim chuckled.

He chuckled, "I'll do a lot more then try."

* * *

"You sure you don't wanna go home?" Jim asked as she locked her front door behind them and dropped her duffle bag. "I was here alone Wednesday night and I was perfectly fine."

"You asked me that a million times already," he chuckled.

"I'm just checking."

"No, you're not. What's wrong?" Leonard asked.

"Nothing," she said with a shrug as she pulled off her coat.

"I call bullshit. If you don't want me to stay, I'll go."

"It's not that."

"Okay, so what is it?"

"What if Chris dies?" Jim asked with a sigh. "What if… What if I'm right and this guy goes after my mother? She's not my favorite person but she's still my mother. What if I can't stop him before he hurts her?"

"What happened to all that Jim Kirk bravado?" he asked.

"I'm too tired to pretend to be brave," she muttered. "The closest thing I have to a father and my brother are both in the hospital. Some lunatic is after my mother. And I'm in charge of the fuckin' department. This is Thanksgiving, I can't wait 'til Christmas."

"You'll catch him, Jim, you just can't do it alone. You have good people on your team, let them help you. I did George's surgery myself, so I know he's fine. You let me worry about Chris," Leonard said, holding her face in his hands. "Last I checked, I'm a damn good doctor. He's not gonna die as long as I can help it. Okay?"

"Okay," Jim whispered.

"How about we head up and go to bed?"

"Yea. You know, nobody has ever slept in my bed with me."

"Really? Not even a one-nighter?"

She shook her head, "Nope. You know how I told you about feeling safe when I sleep. I've never let anyone sleep in my bed because I didn't want that feeling to get ruined."

"You want me to sleep on the couch?" Leonard asked.

"Hell, no. I'm just… it's kind of a big deal. Me trusting someone to sleep in my room."

"And you're scared that you'll hate it, even more scared that you won't," he guessed.

"Maybe," Jim chuckled. "You think that makes me nuts?"

"You sleep with a gun under your pillow, so jury's out on that one," Leonard smiled.

"Well, a strange man did get into my bed last week," she smiled. "I mean, who does that?"

"I wasn't in the bed, just on it. And you're the one who didn't lock your door," Leonard reminded her.

"True but nobody's ever bothered me before."

"Maybe I'll just have to bother you more often."

"I'm locking the doors these days. You have to knock. Sorry," Jim chuckled. "Come on. We both need sleep and showers and not necessarily in that order."


	19. Chapter 19

"You know, you both didn't have to come with me," Jim said as they pulled into the parking lot of the Iowa State Penitentiary.

"I have an eidetic memory," Spock said by way of explanation. Jim smiled and Leonard figured that it was some inside thing between the two of them.

"I'm not actually working, I can do what I want," Leonard told her.

"You wanna spend your time off visiting a prison?" she gave him a look.

"Not really. Maybe I'm just trying to watch your back," the southerner shrugged.

"That's what I brought Spock for," Jim chuckled, motioning to the tall man.

"The more the merrier," Leonard smiled.

"If you say so," she shook her head with a small smile as they walked into the building.

Leonard wasn't sure what he was expecting but this didn't look like any prison he'd ever seen, granted all of those were on television or in the movies, but still. This place reminded him of a secure hospital wing more than a prison, at least until you got to security. He looked around as they all walked over to a man who was probably a few years or so older than Chris.

"Lieutenant Kirk," the man said with a nod.

"Warden Komack," Jim said. "Is he ready?"

"Yes. I'll need you to sign in and secure your weapons before the sergeant can take you back," Komack told her.

"Understood," she said.

One of the guards checked their IDs before directing them to sign in. Jim signed the log book and got a visitor tag before putting her gun and Spock's into one of the small gun lockers in the wall, sticking the key in her pocket. Leonard and Spock both signed, got their tags and followed the guard through a corridor and into a room.

"I still don't know who we're here to see," Leonard whispered as soon as the guard told them the emergency procedure and left.

"That's because I didn't tell you," Jim said. Her eyes were closed and she was counting. Not counting, multiplying by six.

"You okay?" Leonard asked.

"Somebody's trying to kill my mother, so..." she smiled just as the door opened and the guards led a man inside. Leonard watched as this man stared at Jim. He almost thought it was a leer but there was a softness about it that he didn't understand.

"Well, well, well. Look at you. They told me that I had a visitor but I thought it might've been Sammy," the man chuckled.

"You know good and damn well that I'm the only person allowed to call him that," Jim said as the guards left the four of them alone.

"Come on, Jimmy. I'm stuck in here, I gotta have some fun. Why don't you sit on daddy's lap and we'll talk about the first thing that pops up?"

Who the hell is this guy? Jim looked like she couldn't decide if she wanted to hit this man or laugh at him. She let out a chuckle, "You're not my dad. And you couldn't handle me when I was little. You have no chance now, Francis."

"Francis?" the man smiled. "Come on, Jimmy-girl, you can do better than that."

"Want me to just call you an asshole, Frank?" she smiled. Frank? As in her abusive ex-step-dad? And she was joking with him?

"Oh, somebody's all grown up. You look more like your mom then the last time I saw you. You haven't come to see me since my father died four years ago, so I'm guessing this isn't a social call," Frank chuckled. "What do you want?"

"These women have all been raped, strangled and mutilated in the last month," Spock said, putting the pictures of the dead girls on the table.

"I wouldn't know anything about that. Even if I wasn't in here, it's not my style," Frank shrugged.

"Oh, I know. You're more of a hair trigger, grab whatever's close and beat the shit outta someone kind of guy," Jim smirked.

"So, why are you here, Jimmy?" her former step-dad asked.

"Why would I ask you questions about murders that you obviously couldn't commit?" she asked.

"You think whoever did this might be after your mother," the inmate said. Jim nodded and Frank's whole demeanor changed. He was no longer the cocky jerk that sat down with them, there was genuine worry on his face. "What do you need to know?"

Leonard had to do a double take. This man, who used to beat up on Jim and George, was offering to help them. Maybe he really did love Winona and he just had a crappy way of showing it. Hell, he might've even loved the Kirk siblings. Jim obviously didn't hold much of a grudge against the man and Leonard was really curious as to why.

"Does anyone with pull on the outside have a gripe with her?" Jim asked.

"I don't know. I can try to ask around. As far as these guys are concerned, she's still my old lady. Your father wasn't a cop long enough to make any real enemies. Hell, unless you made a bunch, I don't know who would hurt Winnie. She's not the nicest woman you'll ever meet but she's not bad. That was my job."

"What about you? You got enemies?" Leonard asked.

Frank glanced at him for a second before looking at Jim, "Nobody outside these walls. And nobody dumb enough to go after my family, divorce notwithstanding."

"Okay," she told him.

"That's it? You drove an hour and that's all you got?" Frank asked. She made a motion with her hand. "How's everybody doing?"

"I'm chasing a murder. Chris got stabbed, might be paralyzed. Sam donated part of his liver. Winona has a deputy following her around. And I saw your mom at church on Sunday. She looks good," Jim said.

"She told me she sees you every week. Said you lost your voice but I guess you got it back. Chris… I can't tell you how many times I wished that man would die," Frank said. "He was always a better dad to you than I tried to be. I hope he gets better, I mean that."

"We'll pass it along," she nodded.

"You doing alright?" Frank asked her.

"I've been better but I'm not complaining," Jim said. "I better get back up to Washington County."

"Yea," the man nodded. "Hey, before you go. I, uh… I joined this program. Like a group therapy. They're having a family thing. I know I'm not really your step-dad anymore but I, uh… I would like it if you came to the next one. It's on the twelfth."

"I…" she started.

"It's not a bad idea, Jim," Leonard said. He could see the refusal on the tip of her tongue. "Not just for him."

"I will try. Hopefully, I'll have my murderer in custody by then," Jim smiled.

"You will," Frank said. "You don't believe in no-win scenarios, remember?"

"You told me that was dumb," she chuckled.

"I also tried to choke you into submission, so I wouldn't take my advice if I were you," the inmate told her. "Your number's still the same, right?" Jim nodded. "I'll call you if I find out anything."

"Okay," Jim said with a small smile. "You need anything? Want me to put some money on your books?"

"You don't have to," her former step-dad said.

"Not what I asked," she smiled. "Your mother doesn't have a lot of cash on hand and I know you need stuff."

"I'd appreciate it, sweetheart," Frank smiled.

"Alright then. I'll take care of it on my way out," Jim said. "Don't get yourself in trouble looking into this."

"We'll see," the man chuckled.

"What is with me and stubborn men?" she smiled. "Thanks for doing this, Frank."

"Don't thank me. I owe you much more than asking a few questions. This is the least I could do," Frank told her just as the guards came back in.

"What just happened?" Leonard looked at Jim.

Jim chuckled, "You just met my step-dad. Come on, boys. We got work to do."

* * *

"Are you okay?" Leonard asked Jim during the drive back to Washington. She was sitting in the backseat and he had a feeling that she was trying to distance herself from them.

"Fine," she said as she tapped out something on her phone.

"Which is woman speak for anything but fine," the southerner said. "How'd he'd end up in prison? Because of you?"

"No," Jim answered.

Leonard rolled his eyes and looked at Spock in the driver's seat, "Do you know?"

"Francis Bower was incarcerated eight years, nine months, one week and three days ago for the involuntary manslaughter of Lance Cartwright," Spock answered.

"What happened?" Leonard asked.

"He beat him to death in a bar fight. Took a plea bargain. Got twenty years. With good behavior and time served, he'll only do a total of fifteen and a half. He'll be out by the time I'm your age," Jim said. "I don't like seeing him but at the same time…"

"He was your step-dad," Leonard said. "You have to have some good memories of him."

"A few. In a way, I understand him more than I do Winona. Frank was never the greatest person but at least he was always honest with me. Mean and a drunk but still honest."

"And now I understand your problem with your mother. She won't admit what happened but he does," Leonard said.

"Yep. When I was younger, I thought she was just being obtuse. After Old Man Bower died, I got to talk to Frank a bit and realized that she was just in denial. It started out with her not wanting me to see Frank at all but I wanted to tell him about his father's death in person. I don't even know why it mattered to me at the time, just that I thought I would want the same courtesy. When he requested to go to the funeral, I volunteered for the guard detail. Sat next to him in that van and talked the whole way up to Riverside and back again. He admitted what he did, even apologized to me and, later, to Sam. I'm not gonna say my memories don't hurt or piss me off sometimes but I realized that I couldn't spend my life being pissed at him. So, I'm working on my forgiveness as far as Frank Bower is concerned," Jim told them.

"You should forgive yourself too," Leonard said.

"This I gotta hear," she scoffed.

"You blame yourself for every bad thing that happens," he told her.

"I do not," Jim said.

"You do," Spock countered. "You somehow believe that your involvement is the cause of many issues. You blame yourself for the abuse Mister Bower inflicted on you and your brother when you were children. You also blame yourself for the distance that your mother's denial has placed on your family. Neither of which is your fault."

"Except it was. If I were a better child…"

"By all accounts, you were well behaved until the abuse began," Spock said.

"Who's account?" Jim asked.

"George, Chris, Arlene, Gaila, a few other people who knew you back then," Leonard said. "They all say the same thing; what happened wasn't your fault. And before you say it, letting it go just to appease your mother would've been disingenuous. You're a lot of things, darlin', but a liar ain't one of 'em."

She chuckled, "Is this the part where you boys tell me that I should just ease up on myself?"

"Yes," Leonard and Spock said at the same time.

"Save your breath," Jim sighed.

"We'll let it go," Leonard said. "For now."

* * *

"I thought you'd be here earlier, kid," Chris chuckled weakly when Jim walked into his room. After a stop at the station to change into uniform, check on the deputies on duty and send Spock home to sleep, Jim and Leonard headed to the hospital.

"Went to see Frank," she told him.

"How was that?" the sheriff asked.

"It was okay. He sends his best. He's gonna see what he can find out without drawing too much attention to himself," Jim sighed.

"Do you trust him?" Chris asked.

"I don't trust anyone but you two and Sam," she answered honestly. "That said, Frank has always loved Winona, there's a threat to her life and he'll do anything he can to prevent anything from happening to her. Besides, he gave me some advice on where I haven't looked yet. Which is where I need your help."

"What do ya need?" Chris asked her.

"Can you remember if George senior had any enemies? Anyone with a grudge against him?" Jim asked.

Chris sighed, "You're talking about twenty-six plus years ago. Georgie was a good cop, I'm sure he rubbed someone the wrong way." The sheriff thought about it for a moment. "I didn't recognize the person. I couldn't actually see their face but I feel like I should've recognized something. Maybe you should head over to ICPD. You remember Robbins?"

"Your old partner. Of course I remember her," she nodded with a knowing smile. Leonard was going to have to ask her later.

"Got promoted to watch commander. Works from the precinct over in Beat Three. If you think this is connected to your dad, then you'll have to go through some of our old reports. Number One will give you anything you her ask for."

"Okay. I can work with that," Jim said before she smiled brightly. "You know she's gonna come over here as soon as she gets the chance."

"I know," Chris chuckled. "Go, the faster you catch this guy, the faster you can stop beating yourself up."

"I'm not…"

"You are," Leonard and Chris said together. Jim looked at both men with a raised eyebrow.

"It's what you do, kid. Now, go, you got work to do," the sheriff said. "Which reminds me; the county board is gonna have to hold an emergency session sometime in the next few days."

"You got stabbed yesterday and they have until end-of-business Thursday to officially appoint an acting sheriff," Jim said. "It can wait."

"No it can't. I'm not walking outta here. I see your hand on my leg but I can't feel it. Everything from the waist down on my right side is just… numb. They have to officially replace me, it's a law, you know that," Chris said.

"Iowa code three-three-one point six-five-one section one," she sighed. Leonard looked at her with a smile. Well, someone downplays her brainpower. How many people can rattle off state laws like that?

"Iowa code one-four-eight point three section two?" Leonard asked. It was one of the only ones he knew off the top of his head. Chris gave him a look.

"'An application for a license shall be made to the board of medicine. All license and renewal fees shall be paid to the board.' That one's easy," she smiled.

"Just wondering if your state law knowledge was limited to police codes," the doctor smiled.

"Three-three-one are actually the state laws for county home rule implementation. One-four-eight codes are for medicine and surgery and osteopathic medicine and surgery. Iowa codes eight-oh and four-oh-oh are for public safety and civil service, respectfully," Jim chuckled.

"Not as smart as Spock and Scotty my ass," Leonard smiled.

"She does a crappy job of hiding her genius," Chris chuckled. "Look, if the board is smart, they'll just swear you in as the acting sheriff and call it a day. That was my recommendation when Vice-chairman Barnett came to talk to me this morning."

"I don't wanna take your job, Chris," Jim said with a chuckle.

"I don't want them to put some idiot in my department. You know what you're doing and the men respect you. Besides, I'm not going anywhere. If you need advice, all you gotta do is ask."

She glanced at Leonard before she gave the older man a look, "Chris..."

"Jamison," the sheriff said. "Go catch this guy and worry about the politics later."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I took the whole 'Jim rattling off laws' thing is from TOS Gary Mitchell's description of Kirk being a "stack of books with legs" and from the AOS comic version of The Galileo Seven. Ferris tries to get Kirk to abandon Spock, Scotty, Bones and a few other people in the middle of a quasar by throwing regs at Jim. Jim counters by rattling off a different regulation (the whole thing, by section and line numbers) that maintained his command. With some help from Uhura, they save the day and delivered the medical gear on-time. It's a side of Jim that gets alluded to in the AOS movies and I wish we had gotten to see it.


	20. Chapter 20

"Alright, you stubborn idiots," Leonard said as he Joanna, Peter, Gaila and Winona walked into the sheriff's station Saturday evening.

"What is all this?" Jim asked, motioning to the bags that the group brought with them.

"Well, since you've decided that work is more important than food, we decided to bring you something to eat. There's enough for all of you and the guys on the next shift."

"That's very sweet," she smiled.

"It was Joanna's idea. She figured that since none of us actually got to have Thanksgiving dinner, that you guys would appreciate it," he chuckled. "Can't have you starving on us."

"Of course not," Jim said quietly before she pressed a soft kiss against his lips. The guys in the station took that as an invitation to whistle and catcall. "They act like they've never seen two people kiss before."

"I think it has more to do with you, Jim," Sulu chuckled.

"I guess," Jim sighed.

"Are you guys getting anywhere?" Leonard asked. Since her talk with Chris the day before, he's been a little out of the loop. Of course, it wasn't really his job, or even in his wheelhouse, but he was curious.

"Not really. None of the guys still around at ICPD has anything but love for Kirk senior," Jacobs said.

"Even the people my dad arrested didn't have anything bad to say about him," Jim chuckled.

"Yea, man," Sulu smiled. "I can't tell you how many times I got something like 'Officer Kirk was such a nice guy. He was just doing his job.' It's unreal."

"I can see it," Winona said. "George always treated people well. He believed that one bad action shouldn't rob someone of their dignity. As long as they were respectful to him, he was respectful to them. Everyone except Nero."

"Nero?" Leonard asked.

"Eric Allan Nero," Spock said. "The man who killed Jim's father."

"You guys think it's him?" the southerner asked.

"That would be unlikely. Eric Nero is imprisoned in the Utah State Prison in Draper, Utah, twenty miles southwest of Salt Lake City," Spock said. Leonard gave him a look. "Nero's family is from that area, he requested and was granted a transfer to their facility in an effort to be near his parents."

"I entertained the idea for a second because he showed clear violence towards women but nothing like this," Jim said. "Besides, he's in prison, I checked to make sure, so it can't be him."

"But it could be about him, right?" Leonard asked. "I mean, he's in jail for killing your dad. If anyone has a reason not to like you it would be Nero. You guys said he has family."

"His sons. Nero has two boys," Winona said. "The youngest one is the same age as Junior, now that I'm thinking about it."

"Wait. What?" Jim looked at her mother.

"Their mother would take them to court during the trial; I think she was trying to drum up sympathy. Of course, between the multiple domestic reports where she refused to let the police take him and the fact that your dad tried his damnedest to protect those kids, it didn't work. I'm pretty sure she changed their names and moved after Nero was convicted."

"Huh," Jim said. "Sulu…"

"Find out what I can about the Nero brothers. On it," Sulu nodded. "You guys gotta get outta here soon anyway."

"Where are you going?" Gaila asked.

"County Board of Supervisors needs to see me. They're even holding a special Saturday meeting just for us. Hooray," Jim deadpanned. "They want an update on all this and, I'm guessing, they want to talk about who takes over Chris' job."

"Better be you or the rest of us will riot," Sulu said.

"Hopefully, they won't piss off the guys with the guns. If they do, we're all screwed," Gaila laughed.

"You guys do know that I have to accept an appointment to take over Chris' term, right?" Jim said.

"Why wouldn't you?" Jacobs asked.

"I don't know, it just feels wrong," Jim chuckled.

"Of course it does. It is wrong," Leonard said. Jim went to open her mouth but he shook his head. "It's like a kid taking over the family business after their parent dies. It's not a situation you want to be in but you also know that your folks wouldn't want anyone else to do it. In your case, Chris isn't dead, which makes you feel guilty because you are, in effect, taking his job. So, you gotta ask yourself what'll make you feel less guilty. Do you take Chris' job, like he wants, and do what you know is right or do you let them bring in a ringer?"

"We'll see," Jim chuckled. "Spock, you're with me."

* * *

"Hang on a second," Leonard called to the person knocking on his door at just before midnight. He pulled the door open and let out a chuckle. "Took you long enough."

"Got held up. It ain't easy being the boss," Jim smiled.

"If anybody can handle it, it's you," he said as he stepped aside to let her into the house.

"I guess."

"I know," Leonard chuckled. Jim pulled off her jacket and looked up at him. "Are you gonna tell me what happened?

"The usual. Some talking, some arguing and some decision making before I went back to the station and had a late dinner," she smiled. He gave her a look. "Spock will be switching over to the active duty roster to take on some of my previous responsibilities since I have been appointed as the Acting Sheriff of Washington County."

"Congratulations?"

"Yea, you congratulate me," she smiled. "Spock, on the other hand..."

"Not a good thing?"

"Ny likes the idea."

"I'm guessing his folks won't," he chuckled.

"His mom will understand. His dad, not so much. The ambassador already thought being a professor was a waste of Spock's talents so he won't be happy with this at all. Spock will still teach a little but he'd been considering a move to the department on a more hands on basis for a while. Chris getting hurt left us with a big hole to fill since we were already understaffed. I think Scotty's gonna stick around the department for a while too. Anyway, I get to swear in on Monday. Which… They're gonna do an official thing and I, uh… I want you to be there. I mean, you don't have to, if you don't want. It's a work day and all. It's just Chris and Sam and Arlene won't be there and I don't know about my mot…" Leonard pressed his lips against hers, cutting her off. Jim let out a whimper before she kissed him back, her fingers running along the back of his neck.

"Stop rambling. You want me to be there, so I will be there," Leonard whispered against her lips.

"That simple, huh?" Jim asked.

"That simple," he smiled as he took her hand and pulled her towards the stairs. "Come on."

"Where are we going?"

"I think you know."

"I think I want you to tell me," she smiled.

"I'm gonna let the new sheriff have her way with me," he said with a smirk.

"Acting Sheriff," she corrected as they walked up the stairs.

"Semantics."

"You sound like Nyota."

"I will take that as a compliment," he smiled as he unbuttoned her shirt, dropping it in the hallway. "You wear too many clothes."

"Considering that it's almost December in Iowa…" Jim chuckled as she pulled the tank top over her head and walked away from him.

"Where are you going?" Leonard asked with a smile.

"I've been working all day and I need a shower," she smirked. "You're more than welcome to join me. It is your bathroom, after all."

"You're gonna be the death of me," he groaned.

"Probably," Jim shrugged as she pulled her boots off, leaning against the wall so she didn't fall. "Maybe you'll be the death of me. I mean, that tongue…"

"Shut up," Leonard laughed as he closed the distance between them and unbuttoned her jeans. Jim pulled the gun holster off her waistband and sat the weapon on the bathroom counter.

"Own your talents, Bonesy," she told him with a smile as she kicked the denim off her legs.

"Oh, believe me, I do," he chuckled before he pinned her between his body and the counter.

"What are you doing?"

"I don't know. What am I doing?" Leonard smirked before he picked her up, sat her on the counter and stood between her legs, which Jim wrapped around his waist.

"You have on too many clothes to get in the shower," Jim chuckled as she pushed his shirt over his head and dropped it on the floor. He leaned over and turned on the water, knowing that it had to warm up a little.

"That so, Sheriff Kirk?"

"Oh, that sounds so naughty when you say it," she smiled, pressing a kiss on his chest. "Sheriff Kirk." She tried to copy his accent. "Sheriff."

"Do me a favor and never try to talk like me again."

"But, Bonesy."

"Don't 'but, Bonesy' me. Your southern accent is atrocious, darlin'."

"That's okay. I have better things to do with my mouth," Jim chuckled before her lips returning to the skin over his collarbone.

"I can see that," he said with a smile as she kissed her up his neck, over his jaw, to his lips. The kiss was slow, lingering, like they had all the time in the world. Leonard gave Jim's thighs a gentle squeeze as he pulled her closer. "Water's probably warm."

"So are you," she smiled, unhooking her bra with one hand that way that girls do before sliding it off. "Did you bring Georgia's heat up here with you?"

"You can't handle Georgia heat, Jimmy."

"You know better than to tell me that I can't do something, Leonard. Besides, I handle you just fine," Jim said, giving a nudge and hopping off the counter. She stepped out of her underwear and into the shower. Jim let out a shameless moan when the hot water hit her skin.

"And here I thought I was the reason you made that sound," he chuckled as he took off his shorts and joined her.

"Well, you are here, so I think it counts. Don't you?"

"Maybe," Leonard smiled. He poured shower gel in his hands and started with her shoulders, kneading the tension away as he lathered her up.

"I guess all those anatomy classes were good for something," she muttered as he worked his way down her back.

"You have no idea," he laughed.

"I'm pretty sure I do. You… You… Oh, wow," Jim sighed. His thumbs pressed circles at the base of her spine and Jim lost the ability to form whole sentences.

"Did I just find a way to shut you up?" Leonard asked. She didn't say anything, just moaned. "I'll have to remember that."

"Don't care," she sighed. "Your hands are amazing."

"Glad you think so," he chuckled as he moved his hands to her hips and pulled her back against him.

"Bonesy," Jim purred.

"Right here, darlin'," Leonard said as his hands roamed her soft skin. Jim turned in his arms and pulled him with her under the spray.

"Want me to soap you up?"

"No. I already took a shower. Besides, I'm having a very hard time not pinning you against the tile."

"Hmm, hard about sums it up," she giggled as she wrapped her hand around him. His eyes drifted closed. "Tell me why you can't pin me against the tile."

"Because… it's slippery in here. We… could get hurt," he forced out as she gave him a squeeze.

"You should live a little," Jim chuckled.

"Jim," Leonard whispered.

"Bones," she whispered back, her hand sliding from base to tip and back down again.

"Tile it is," he sighed as he slid his hands from her hips to that cute little ass, lifting her in his arms and pressing her back against the tile. Jim let out a little yelp, her arms wrapping around his shoulders and her legs settling around his waist as he slowly brought their bodies together.

"Oh," Jim sighed, her whole body relaxing around him. He slowly withdrew from her before sliding back in. "Do you know how hard it is to concentrate at work when all I keep thinking about is this?"

"I might have an idea," Leonard muttered against her neck. It was probably a good thing he hasn't had to work this week; he'd be in the same boat as her.

"It's bad. I think you might be my new favorite addiction," she said with a chuckle that turned into a moan.

"The feeling's mutual, darlin'," he told her as he moved faster.

Jim tightened her grip around his shoulders, her fingers pressing harder into his skin but he didn't care. The only thing he could focus on was her. The way her breathing changed, the way she rolled her hips to meet him, the way she muttered his name over and over as they moved together. When Jim's body tightened even more, he knew she wasn't going to last long. It was ridiculous how enraptured they were with each other. At the same time, it wasn't ridiculous at all.

Jim buried her hands in his hair, forcing him to look up a her. She brought their lips together in a heated kiss, like she was pouring her soul into him just as her orgasm hit. Jim's whole body arched and she moaned into his mouth. Leonard slowed down, letting Jim come down from her high.

"You didn't…"

"I know," Leonard smiled.

"Never would've pegged you for edging, Bonesy," Jim chuckled.

"What the hell is that?"

"It means, holding off your orgasm and starting all over again."

"You mean orgasm control. In my head, it just means not being a selfish asshole. We got time," he smiled.

"Do we?" she asked with a sigh.

"Yes, just not in here," Leonard said as he pulled out of her and sat Jim's feet on the ground. "Let's finish your shower before the water gets cold and head to bed where we have more room."

"That is a wonderful idea."


	21. Chapter 21

"Hello," Jim said into her phone while they were heading to the church. "Are you sure?" She listened to whoever was on the other end before she sighed. "Send me the details. I'll take Spock, you go home and get some sleep."

"Everything okay?" Leonard asked as soon as she hung up.

"Sulu found the Nero brothers," she told him.

"And?"

"And I know one of them," Jim sighed as she tapped out a text on her phone. "So, I'm gonna head down to Washington and talk to him."

"You want me to come?" he asked, he wasn't entirely sure why.

"I don't kn… All doctors have to do psychiatric training, right?" she asked.

"Yea. At the very least, it teaches you how to interact with your patients. Do meaningful interviews."

"Pathology?"

"That too. This going somewhere?"

"Half-curiosity."

"The other half?" Leonard asked.

"Wondering how well you did in both," Jim sighed.

"You know my pathology is pretty good. And I could've picked psych as my specialty, if I had the temperament to sit around talking all day. Why?" He was beyond curious, now.

"Because I need a mostly objective opinion with clinical experience. Go tell Gaila and Jo that you're going with me. Between me, you and Spock, maybe we can actually get some answers," she told him with a smile.

"You still haven't told me what Sulu found," he said.

"Shannon Nero changed her and her son's names to Garth. When she got married, her youngest son, who was still a minor, was adopted by her husband, Tobias Finney. Which means, we get to have a chat with Ben," Jim told him. "Go, so we can get outta here."

* * *

"I know our date wasn't all that great but you don't need back up," Ben chuckled when he let them into his house.

"I'm not here about that. Can we come in?" Jim said. Ben walked into the living room as Jim, Spock and Leonard trailed in behind him. Leonard noticed that the acting sheriff and her second in command were scanning the room as Ben offered them all seats. Jim and Leonard sat on the couch while Spock stood next to them. "I need to ask you about your family."

"That's a short conversation, my parents are dead," Ben shrugged.

"You know that's not true," she scoffed.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Finney gave her a look.

"Your father is incarcerated," Spock said. "You also made no mention of your brother."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Ben looked at them. Jim opened the file in her hands and handed Finney a picture. "Who is this?"

"That's your father, Eric Nero. Twenty-seven years ago this January, he shot and killed an Iowa City police officer after your mother called nine-one-one reporting a domestic disturbance. PD found you and your brother hiding in a closet. As a matter of fact, the officer who found you later became sheriff of this county. All of which, you know," Jim said.

"You think this guy's telling you the truth? He could just be telling you what you need to hear about your daddy's death," Ben said.

"The inaccuracy of Sheriff Pike's recollection is highly unlikely," Spock pointed out. "Also, considering that Kirk made no mention her father, it means you are far more informed than you appear."

"I did some research," Finney shrugged.

"In your position at the clerk's office," Leonard said, remembering the few details that Jim gave him about Ben from what seems like forever ago.

"Yea. Look, as fun as this is…" Ben started.

"Where's your brother?" Jim asked. They all looked at her.

"I don't know," Finney said. "Why?"

"Because I'm pretty sure he was in my house, trying to kill me. Sheriff Pike is paralyzed. There are three dead women, one of which was my cousin. I need to ask Kelvin some questions. If you help me, he has a chance."

"If I don't?" Ben asked with a smug smirk.

"I will send him to you in a box," Jim growled.

"That sounds like a threat," Finney said, standing up.

Jim stood toe-to-toe with Ben, "I don't make threats, Ben. That was a promise. Bones, Spock, let's go."

"So," Leonard said as they walked to the cruiser. "That went well."

"He's lying," Spock said.

"I know," the southerner nodded. "He's putting on a good show but he's scared of someone. I'm gonna go out on a limb and say it's his brother. He was here."

"You noticed the stack of bedding too?" Jim asked.

"Yea. And the boot prints just inside the door. They're about two sizes too big for his feet," Leonard said as they got into the car, Spock behind the wheel.

"Maybe I should get you a badge," she chuckled.

"Should we assign someone to observe him?" Spock asked.

"Already on it," Jim smiled as she held her phone to her ear. "Hey, Chief, it's Jim Kirk." She paused for a second. "Actually, it is about the sheriff's stabbing. I got a guy who might be involved. I just left his brother's house and I'm pretty sure that it's one of them but I need time to connect the dots." Jim didn't say anything for a few moments. "I'll email you the details in the next few minutes. Thanks for the help." She paused again. "I'll tell him but I'm sure Chris wouldn't mind a few visitors other than me and Captain Robbins." Jim chuckled. "I know. Thanks, Chief." She hung up. "Washington PD is sending a plainclothes officer over here to keep an eye on Finney. We gotta figure out what the endgame is. I'd love to talk to their mother but Sulu said he couldn't find anything in the system on her."

"Did he try medical records? Everyone has them somewhere, if we can track her down that way, we can talk to her," Leonard told her.

"That's not something we automatically have access to," Jim said, glancing back at him.

"If only you knew a doctor," Leonard smirked. He doesn't automatically have access either but he has a better chance of getting his hands on the information than they do. "Just give me a place to start."

"Alright," she smiled. "Let's head to the station and see if we can't answer some burning questions."

"Yea, like why one or both of Nero's sons wants to kill your mother," Leonard chuckled.

Jim nodded, "Why don't we ask her?"

* * *

"I can't believe you had them drag me down here," Winona said when she walked into Jim's office. Granted, Jim was the acting sheriff and she could've used Chris' office but she wasn't ready to go there just yet.

"I didn't have anyone drag you anywhere," Jim said. "I simply asked Greg to drive you down here. Since there's someone trying to kill you, I figured you wouldn't put up that much of an argument. Then, I remember that you're more stubborn than I am. Now, can you have a seat so we can talk?"

"Now you wanna talk to me," Winona scoffed as she sat in the chair next to Leonard. "I suppose we need witnesses."

"This is an investigation, so Bones and Spock stay," Jim told her mother. "Why do the Nero's sons have a problem with you?"

"I don't know. Ask them," the older woman said. Leonard wanted to laugh as he realized that Jim got her attitude from her mother. He didn't say anything, he kept reading the files on the tablet in his hands. Winona sighed and stood up. "Now, if it's all the same to you, I'm gonna go see my son."

"Sit down," Jim said, authority lacing her tone. Winona glared at her for a moment before returning to her seat. "Janet, Beth and Marla all appear to be surrogates for you. Everything in my gut is telling me that one or both of them is involved and the only connection they have to the area is you."

"Their mother," Winona said.

"She's dead," Leonard said, looking up from the tablet in his hands. "She died a year ago, almost to the day we found Janet Wallace's body. It's what cops and shrinks like to call a stressor. A reason for a criminal to... snap."

"The anniversary of their mother's death, combined with victimology and proximity lead us to believe that you are, in fact, the true target of these killings. We have exhausted all other avenues of investigation," Spock said. "You are the only plausible lead that remains."

"I still don't know why they would be after me. If anything, I should be angry with them," Winona said.

"It wasn't their fault. I don't even think this is fully their fault either," Leonard sighed. Jim's mother raised an eyebrow. "Shannon Nero or Garth or Finney or whatever we're calling her was bipolar, according to this."

"Fifty-three percent of all serial killers have some form of mental illness in their family," Spock added.

"There's a part of the brain called the hypothalamic region of the limbic system, the most primitive part of the brain. There's no conscience or judgement. In most kids, healthy relationships with one or both parents counters the hypothalamus and teaches control of emotions. Given the abuse that Shannon, Ben and Kelvin suffered, it's safe to assume that Kelvin never learned that control and that Benjamin's control may not be all there. Just like Jim," Leonard told her.

"Are you saying Jim's crazy?" Winona chuckled.

"No, he's saying I'm impulsive, which is mostly true," Jim said. "You think Kelvin is a psychopath?"

"Yes. I read everything Sulu found on him and I can almost guarantee it. Ben's harder to figure out. Your mother doesn't know why they want her dead because I doubt they know. Probably some perceived injustice," Leonard sighed.

"Psychopaths are incapable of sympathy or empathy and take no responsibility for their actions. They often consider themselves above others and are usually remorseless and/or narcissistic. The very existence of the Kirk family could be considered an affront, though you did nothing wrong," Spock said.

"So, how do we combat that?" Winona asked.

Leonard sighed, "I don't actually have an answer for you. Psychopaths can almost mimic emotions well enough to fool someone. Skilled in deception, they may actually appear charming, friendly or even likable. Other psychopaths will engage in severe antisocial behavior, including crimes against people or animals."

"So, we're back at square one," Winona sighed.

"No," Jim said. "I don't know what we're gonna do next but we're definitely getting somewhere."

* * *

"She doesn't hate you as much as she thinks she does," Leonard told Winona while they waited on Jim and Spock to talk about whatever they were talking about without them in Sulu's office.

"You would probably know better than me," Jim's mother sighed. "It's not that she hates me, or even that she thinks she does, she shut me out."

"You were supposed to protect her and you didn't," he said.

"Funny how she doesn't talk to me but she talks to Frank after…"

"The abuse he inflicted on her and George when they were younger. He admits it. He apologized for it. Invited her to group therapy with him. Hell, they're at a point where they can even joke about it. You want her to act like it didn't happen but it did. It's part of who she is, for better or for worse. You wanna ignore that but that's not Jim's style. Bad things happen, she tries to learn from them. To grow from them. She can't do that if she doesn't acknowledge them."

Before they were ever a thing -there's still no title to their relationship- Jim and Leonard spent a lot of time talking. Most of the time, Jim just told him what she was thinking but it was the things that she doesn't say that gave him the biggest insight to who she is. Even her explanation of her relationship with Frank was full of things unsaid. Leonard got why she could forgive her abuser but not her mother. As far as Jim was concerned, Frank was in the same boat as her for a long time.

"You don't understand," Winona told him.

"I know I don't, I don't have the whole story and it's not really my place to ask," Leonard sighed. "Having said that, I am a parent. Jo's a little older than Jim was when you married Frank so I can see what Jim's problem is. Joanna may not agree with me all the time, she may not even like me all the time but she knows with every fiber of her being that I would rather hurt myself then let anyone hurt her, including her mother. She knows that she can tell me anything, anything, and I'll listen. Your daughter doesn't have that. The only thing you've ever shown her is that someone else was more important and most of the time, it was a dead man. All Jim wants is for you to tell her that she's not crazy. She wants you listen and hear what she has to say. To know that you understand. To know that nobody is gonna hurt her. Things she should've gotten from you a long time ago. Things that Chris gave her. Things that Frank wasn't able to give her until recently. I'm pretty sure that's why she talks to him."

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"According to Jim, despite the abuse, he did try to be her dad. She doesn't even remember interacting with you that often. She remembers her birthdays as being somber. Remembers things being about George senior… even now. I mean, I can see that you're not over his death and I haven't known you that long. You think Jim, George junior and Frank didn't notice?" he asked.

Winona gave him a look. Leonard was under the impression that she never considered that. He honestly doesn't know how she didn't get that, unless nobody bothered to point it out. Considering that Jim and her mother can't actually have a productive conversation, that wasn't crazy.

"It wasn't like that," Winona said.

"Frank lived in the Kirk house, on the Kirk property, with the Kirk children. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that it took a toll on him, trying to live up to George Kirk's legacy. I don't know about George junior, but it's something that Jim still deals with. Something that she'll probably always deal with. As the son of a dead man who followed in his father's footsteps, I understand what it means to be compared to my father. But unlike Jim, I at least knew the man. I have memories of him and advice from him. I have something to temper the comparisons. Jim doesn't. Jim has her mother holding on to one man while bringing another into her life and not considering the toll it took, and still takes, on any of them."

"She didn't say all that," she looked at him.

"Of course not. She knows that talking about her feelings doesn't get her anywhere. That's your doing too."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, we know who the Nero boys are. For those who aren't TOS watchers *disappointed sigh* Benjamin Finney was the Enterprise records officer who faked his death and tried to get Kirk court-martialed. Spock and Bones figured it out and Finney was the one who ended up in trouble. Kelvar Garth or Garth of Izar was a fleet captain and hero of Axanar who tried to destroy a planet, killed his XO and 2nd officer when they managed to stop him and was committed to penal colony for criminals with mental problems. He captured Jim and Spock but the pair managed to outsmart him. The Kelvin is obviously the ship that George and Winona served on and I decided to use that as Garth's first name.


	22. Chapter 22

"You nervous about tomorrow?" George asked as they all hung out in Chris' room. Apparently, it's the first place George wanted to go after he was allowed out of bed and it's where he walks to every day.

"There's no reason for her to be," Chris said.

"Of course not. I'll just be in charge of the jail and patrol and investigations and administering oaths and servings summons and assigning bailiffs and sixty-four other things as outlined by state law and then some for the next year if there's a special election or three years if there isn't. All of that on top of a murder investigation," Jim chuckled. "I'm seriously wondering if it's too late to back out."

"Don't do that," Leonard told her, his hands on her shoulders as he stood behind her. "You got this, darlin'."

"You say that now. Wait until I'm stumbling through your door at two in the morning, covered in crap I can't identify before I have to leave for a shift less than four hours later," Jim sighed. They all looked at her.

"It happened. My third week as sheriff. We ended up sleeping on my living room floor so we didn't track it all over the house. Had to burn those uniforms… after we grilled a couple steaks on my back patio in the snow," Chris laughed. "The good old days, huh, kiddo?"

"No kidding," Jim chuckled. "I can't believe that was just January."

"Change is a hell of a thing, Jimmy," the sheriff sighed. "Sometimes it's good, sometimes it's not but usually, it's just what you need."

"How philosophical of you, Chris," George chuckled.

"I have my moments, son," Chris smiled and ruffled the younger man's hair.

"Aren't they just adorable?" Arlene asked with a chuckle. "They've been bonding."

"Well, Chris got Kirk DNA in his system now," Jim giggled.

"He's Kirked too," Arlene laughed.

"I think I've been Kirked a lot longer than all of you, save Winona," Chris smiled before he pointed at Jim. "That one gave me all these gray hairs."

"I did not," Jim chuckled. "Pining over Erin gave you gray hair."

"Oooo," George, Arlene and -surprisingly- Winona said at the same time.

"Erin?" Leonard looked around the room.

"Captain Robbins," Spock answered.

Jim nodded, "They were partners for like twelve years and he's been in love with her for all of them. At least, as far as I can remember. He still is."

"I am not," Chris said.

"Your nose is growing. He's so in love with her, it's annoying. Like more annoying than we are. It's part of why she ended up getting divorced," Jim said with a small smile. "The feels, Bonesy, the feels."

"Watch it, kiddo. I may not be able to walk over there but that doesn't mean I can't roll over your ass with a wheelchair," the sheriff chuckled.

"You couldn't hurt me if your life depended on it, old man," Jim smiled.

"Well, you are my partner in crime," Chris chuckled. Jim looked at Spock. "What?"

"Oh, my God. You think…" Jim sighed.

"That would be logical," Spock said.

Leonard doesn't know how but he understood what they weren't saying, "You might be right."

"You guys wanna fill the rest of us in on your half-conversation?" George asked.

"We've been looking at this like it's one killer but I think we're wrong," Jim said. "When we looked at the crime scenes, we assumed that we were dealing with someone who was a mix of both organized and unorganized traits. However, it's more plausible that it's two different people. A team; one dominant who's organized and one submissive who isn't. No, that's… that's crazy."

"It's not crazy," Winona said. Jim looked at her mother. "You're on to something, Jimmy, keep going."

Jim nodded, "When we talked to Finney, we assumed that he was scared of his brother, what if he's not scared at all?"

"You think it was an act?" Chris asked, sitting up a little.

"Bones thinks that Garth is a psychopath but what if they both are? I thought that the stabbing was overkill but I'm thinking that one of them gets off on it. The rape is for the other one," Jim said.

"So, a pair of psychopathic sexual sadists," Chris said. "I'd buy that. They blitz their victims, strangling them to the point of compliance, tie them up, rape them, kill them and then mutilate them."

"That's just wrong," Arlene sighed. "Who would do something like that?"

"One of the subjects is most likely an anger-excitation rapist," Spock said. "They are sexually aroused and motivated by the suffering of their victims."

"It's all about power," Chris nodded. "It's not enough to hold these women hostage and hurt them, one or both of them gets his sexual arousal from that pain. I think it's Finney."

"Why?" Winona asked.

"Because Finney is a crafty S.O.B. He went on a date with the county's second highest law enforcement officer, me, after he killed my cousin. That's not a coincidence. I know that I was within arm's length of him more than once and there's nothing I can do about it. He got into my head and, though it's not physical pain, it's gonna bother the fuck outta me," Jim sighed. "The way he lied to us today… It's a game. He's playing a game and he's one step ahead."

"So, he's the dominant. Why would Garth follow his little brother?" George looked at them.

"The same reason you'd jump off a bridge if Jim told you to," Chris pointed out.

"I feel like I failed her growing up," the older Kirk sibling sighed, glancing at his mother. "So, this Garth doesn't want to kill. His brother is just telling him what to do and he's doing it because he couldn't protect his little brother from their father." Jim, Spock, Chris and Leonard nodded. "That's just sick."

"No kidding," Jim sighed.

"Can you explain that to the rest of us?" Arlene asked. Spock explained the psychopathy to everyone in the room.

"We've been looking at this backwards," Jim said with a groan as she looked at the phone in her hand. "And we just lost Finney, he slipped the detail WPD had on him. He was right there and I fucked it up."

"No, you didn't. You can't arrest him without any evidence and you know it," Chris sighed. "Where do you think they're going?"

"Nowhere," Spock said before Jim could answer. "It would be illogical for Finney to leave the area without completing his task."

"Which is to kill me," Winona sighed.

"Over my dead body," Jim said.

"Preferably not," Spock said.

"So, how do we find them?" George asked.

Leonard sighed, "That's the million-dollar question."

* * *

"That's not gonna work," Jim groaned.

"What about baiting them?" Leonard asked.

"The only thing we have is my mother. It's not something I can just do. It would have to be meticulously planned out so she doesn't end up dead," she said.

"Hey," he tugged on the back of her shirt and pulled her onto his lap. "You'll catch them."

"Before or after they kill someone else?"

"This is not your fault. I don't know a whole lot about your job but I do know that you need something more than a profile and your gut to make an arrest. Unless one of them shows up and gives you a confession, you're gonna have to let it play out. They're the assholes, darlin', not you."

"Well, I'm kind of an asshole. I mean, taking up all your time to worry about this stuff and you have a life. I mean, how…"

"If I had a problem, you'd be the first to know it," Leonard whispered against her neck, pressing a soft kiss under her jaw. "I like helping if I can."

"God, you're so fuckin' adorable sometimes," she smiled.

"Just sometimes?" he asked with mock surprise. Jim's smile only brightened.

"Alright, you two," Gaila said as she walked into the room. "Out of the kitchen."

"But, Red, this is his kitchen" Jim pouted.

"True but nobody will actually get to eat while you two are in here making out instead of making dinner. Go away," the redhead ordered.

"Fine. I'm gonna see if Jo wants to play LEGO Avengers with me," Jim said as she jumped up, kissed his cheek and ran off.

"We were having a moment," Leonard sighed.

"Have a moment somewhere else," Gaila smiled.

"It's my house."

"I don't care."

* * *

"I, Jamison Tabitha Kirk, do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Iowa, and that I will faithfully and impartially, to the best of my ability, discharge all the duties of the office of Sheriff of Washington County, as now or hereafter required by law," Jim said with her left hand on a bible and her right hand raised.

Vice-chairman Barnett smiled and shook her hand, "Congratulations, Sheriff."

Leonard really shouldn't have been surprised at how many people showed up to this thing. Jim was not only the first woman to serve as the Washington County Sheriff, she was, according to Spock, 'at twenty-six years, eleven months, three weeks and two days old,' the youngest sheriff to serve in the state of Iowa and the second youngest sheriff in the country behind a guy in North Carolina.

He doesn't know how he ended up standing with Spock, Scotty and the rest of the guys from the department but nobody seemed to notice or care that he was there. Leonard even tried to bow out when people started taking pictures but nobody would let him. As if she could feel his discomfort, Jim made her way over to the group.

"Deputies and Bones," Jim smiled.

"Sheriff Kirk," Leonard smiled back.

"Don't you two stand here and make eyes at each other," Sulu chuckled.

"Wasn't planning on it but thanks for the faith, Hikaru," she smiled.

"I was planning on it," the southerner said with a smirk. Jim looked up at him from under her eyelashes and he gave her wink.

"Dinnae start that mess, lad," Scotty shook his head just as another photographer came over.

"Sheriff, it's for the school newsletter," the kid said with a bright smile.

"Then, by all means," Jim smiled and situated herself between Leonard and Spock.

"Uh, I don't actually work for the department," Leonard muttered.

"We know," Sulu chuckled. "Nobody cares."

The doctor resigned himself to his fate and wrapped his arm around Jim's waist. The kid took their picture before getting everyone's names and moving to take pictures of other things.

"You better get used to it, your girlfriend's a big deal," Jacobs said with a smirk.

"Are you guys about to give him a bunch of trophy husband jokes?" Jim asked. Everyone but Spock nodded.

"Gee thanks, infants," Leonard smiled.

"Hey, it could be worse," Sulu reminded him. "You idiots could still be pretending you're not totally in _love_ with each other."

Jim smiled, "Now, that would just be a tragedy."


	23. Chapter 23

"There was another one?" Leonard asked Jim. He was between patients and decided to check his messages. Now, he almost wished he hadn't.

"Yep. It's in Washington. Fortunately, or unfortunately, the WPD's chief gave it to us. I guess he figures that we're already working the case, might as well let us keep it," Jim sighed.

"Is the victim the same as the others?" he asked.

"More or less. Pretty teacher, brunette this time, who lives alone. Raped, strangled, mutilated. They didn't take as much time with her though. The mutilation was started before she was dead," she told him.

"Could they be devolving? I mean, the victimology shouldn't change that much," Leonard sighed. They all knew it was a possibility, as frightening as it was.

"Other than the hair and eye color of the victims, it hasn't. Spock thinks that the point of it being teachers is the important part and I'm inclined to agree. As far as devolving goes, you'd have a better idea than I do. I've only worked three murder cases and they were all a fair bit easier than this one. We already think that Garth is disorganized. It's more likely that Finney is losing his control over his brother. Which is just as bad. They left me a note in blood on her wall. 'Now it gets interesting.' Assholes."

"So, this could get worse before it gets better?"

"That's usually the case. Sadly, devolution helps because that's when mistakes are made. Mistakes mean evidence. Right now, there's no hard evidence and no witnesses, so there's nothing to tie anyone to these crimes," Jim chuckled. "With what I have now, the judge would never give me an arrest warrant. What I need to do is figure out their next play. If I can get an idea of who they'd go after next, I can catch them in the act."

"Their pool of teachers has to be getting pretty dry, right?" Leonard asked.

"Yea. The schools have their teachers doubling up with they're in the buildings. Those who live alone are being encouraged to stay with a friend. Though…"

"What?"

"I might have an idea. I'll have to run it by Spock first," she chuckled. "In the meantime, I have a stack of paperwork as big as Joanna."

"All your new responsibilities?"

"Yea. Spock helps but there's a lot of stuff that I actually have to sign off on. I'm gonna end up taking half of it home."

"You want us to come over? Jo and I will make dinner while you do your homework," he offered.

"That's very domestic of you," she said with a laugh.

"Well, I've been told that I'm a domestic god."

"Who told you that?"

"This woman I know. She's smart, gorgeous, badass."

"Sounds like someone special," Jim chuckled.

"She is special. She doesn't even realize how special," Leonard sighed.

"I'm sure she has some idea," she said. Leonard heard someone in the background. "Bones, I gotta go. I'll meet you at the house at…?"

"Six-thirty… six-forty-five at the latest."

"Sounds good, I'll see you then. I love you," Jim said before she hung up.

"She just…" Leonard muttered to himself, staring at the phone.

"What's with you?" Gaila asked, standing at the door to his office with a patient file.

"Jim."

"What did she do?"

"She just said 'I love you'," he told her.

The redhead rolled her eyes and handed him the file, "Like you didn't already know that."

"I did. I just…"

"Didn't expect her to say it," Gaila finished his sentence.

"She's not…"

"The lovey-dovey type and she'll admit it. She also doesn't say that very often," she smiled softly. "Did you say it back?"

"I didn't get a chance. She had to go," Leonard said.

"So, what are you going to do?" Gaila asked.

"I don't know yet," he admitted. "But I'm sure I'll have fun figuring it out."

* * *

"I got these," Leonard tried but Jim just ignored him.

"The person who cooks shouldn't clean," Jim shrugged as she helped him with the dishes. Joanna was in Jim's family room playing on the computer.

They worked in a comfortable silence for a few minutes before he looked at her, "You're more quiet than usual. What's wrong?"

"Nothing. Maybe I don't have anything to say," she shrugged.

"I don't believe that for one second. Talk to me."

"I'm just tired. Between taking over the department, chasing murderers and visiting the hospital, I don't even have time to do my laundry. Spock did the new schedules, they were created for 'maximum efficiency' and I'm supposed to have tomorrow off but I doubt it'll happen."

"Because of all the paperwork?" he asked.

"And the two killers running around," Jim answered. "I need a vacation."

"You think you can take a few days later in the month?"

"Like Christmas?"

"No. I would never attempt to travel around Christmas. I already hate flying enough as it is. Maybe a few days before everyone starts traveling… or for your birthday. Go down to Georgia and meet my mama."

"Your idea of a vacation is for me to meet the woman who gave you life. Are you trying to get me killed?" she asked with a laugh. "Thanks to your ex, I bet your mother would have me kidnapped during the night and interrogated."

"Not kidnapped but the interrogation will happen," Leonard laughed. "I'm serious. You need to go on a short vacation and I would like you to see where I come from."

"Does your accent get thicker when you're in Georgia?"

"Might," he smirked. Jim's ears turned pink. "Oh, that's right… you like my accent."

"Shut up," Jim giggled.

"Was a that a giggle? Jim Kirk just giggled."

"I'm warning you, Bones."

"What are you gonna do?" he asked. She had that mischievous look in her eyes and Leonard knew he was in trouble. "Don't you dare."

"Too late," she smiled before she dumped a bunch of suds on his head.

"Okay," Leonard chuckled. "My turn." He grabbed the spray gun from next to the sink and turned it on her.

"Bones!" She tried to get away from him but it was no use. He wrapped an arm around her waist so she couldn't go anywhere.

"Look at that, you're all wet."

"Bones, stop," Jim laughed. He let the sprayer go back into its cradle.

"I didn't do anything."

"If I get sick, I'm gonna kick your ass," she chuckled, turning in his arms.

"If you get sick, I'll make you soup and lay in bed with you," he told her.

"Returning the favor."

"No. Taking care of the woman I love."

Jim looked up at him, her wet shirt forgotten, "You love me?"

"I do. I think you know that but you can't be sure. So, I'm eliminating all doubt right now. I love you,"

"I love you too," Jim said, giving him a bright smile.

"I'm sure everyone in Riverside knows that," Leonard chuckled.

"Misses Erving doesn't seem to get the hint," she pointed out.

"That's her problem."

* * *

"So, this is where we are," Sulu said as they all sat around Jim's office the next day, "Janet Wallace was discovered on October thirtieth. Then Elizabeth Dehner on November seventeenth. Marla McGivers, and Pike, on November twenty-seventh. Finally, Helen Noel yesterday, on December fourth. They're cooling off period went from seventeen days, to ten, to seven. If they keep going at this rate, we'll most likely find another body on Monday... And it's Friday."

"Which means they could already have their next victim in their sights," Jacobs muttered.

"As a matter of fact, they do," Jim said. She hit some commands on her tablet before she showed it to them. On the screen, Garth was following a woman. Leonard couldn't make out who she was because she was bundled up but she appeared to have no idea that she was being followed. "They started following her after school let out today. If their pattern holds, Spock and I expect that it will, they'll make their move sometime in the next two days."

"You set up some poor woman as bait, Jim?" Leonard looked at her. After checking on George, who got to go home that morning, Leonard decided to check in on his girl. Now, he was wishing that he went home instead. "That's cold. I know they're after your mother but…"

"I did no such thing. I had an idea, which she agreed to," the new sheriff shrugged. "The Nero boys will be lucky if she doesn't kill them before I do."

"Who?" he asked. Leonard couldn't believe that someone would agree to let some killers follow her around.

Sulu smiled, "The future Misses Spock, who else?"

"That's Nyota?" Leonard asked them.

"Yep. They killed her best friend, Bones," Jim sighed. "I didn't even have to ask for her help. I told her what I was thinking and she talked Spock into it."

"They teamed up on him," Sulu said. "Remind me never to get on their bad side. One of them is bad enough."

Leonard laughed, "I'll say."

* * *

"You really don't have to spend your Saturday night hanging out on our stakeout," Jim chuckled as they sat in the guest room of Robert Tomlinson, the man who owned the grocery store, and his wife, Angela Martine-Tomlinson.

"Would it surprise you to know that I'm just curious?" Leonard asked. "I wanna know how you guys did this."

"It wasn't hard once we figured out that we could focus them on one person. On Thursday, Spock and Ny had a very public, albeit fake, fight outside the school. She threw her ring at him and everything. Rob's a reserve deputy, so when I asked if we could use this room, he and Angie were game. They offered Spock a place to stay, also publicly. As far as everyone in town knows, the sweet Miss Uhura is now in that nice sized house all alone, mending her broken heart," Jim said.

"And they started following her?" Leonard asked.

"Yes. We've captured them on surveillance an hour after Nyota 'broke up with me'. In addition to this equipment, which Mister Scott set up three days ago, the house has a state of the art security camera system that can be accessed online," Spock said from his spot on the bed. Jim told him to get some rest but Leonard could understand if the man couldn't sleep. If it was Jim in that house, Leonard would be awake too. "We will be able to see and record everything that transpires."

"How far are you gonna let it go?" the southerner asked them.

"I don't know yet. If we go with the attack on me, Garth shows up sometime before Finney does," Jim sighed. "I don't want Ny to get hurt but…"

"If we move in too soon…" Spock continued.

"They'll get away and they'll know they were baited. Best case; they leave," Leonard nodded. "Worst case; they go on a rampage."

"Yep and yep," she sighed. "So now, I get to hang out in a room with Spock, watching his house, so that we can catch a pair of killers before they hurt Ny."

"You don't have deputies to do this?" the doctor asked.

"Of course we do. There aren't that many of us, sweetheart. During the day, we have Sulu, Stiles and Hendorff on a rotation. At night, it's easier if it's just me and Spock. Well, and you. Where's Jo?"

"At your brother's house. She was helping Arlene with the animals today. With George outta commission, there's a lot of work that still has to get done. Pavel's been picking up the slack but he needed some help. I also think she's helping take care of George," Leonard chuckled.

"That's just what Sam needs, a house full of servants," Jim smiled before she sat up in her chair. "I got movement."

"Where?" Spock asked as he joined them, leaning over Jim's shoulder.

"Right there," she said, her hands moving over the laptop's keyboard.

"That is Garth," Spock nodded.

Leonard looked at the man on the screen as he moved across Spock and Nyota's property. "He's gonna go for it."

"He has no reason not to," Spock said.

Jim chuckled, "If he thinks I gave him trouble, he is in for one hell of a surprise."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you hadn't figured it out yet, the victims are TOS characters. Janet Wallace was a civilian scientist that Kirk dated when he was a young officer. Elizabeth Dehner was a psychiatrist on the Enterprise who was affected by the Great Barrier with Mitchell. Marla McGivers was the Enterprise's historian who committed a fair bit of treason and left the ship with Khan. Apparently, she became his wife. Helen Noel was another psychiatrist on the ship, she helped Kirk stop Dr Adams from using this neural device on people after one of his test subjects stowed away on the Enterprise.
> 
> Robert Tomlinson and Angela Martine were a couple that were supposed to get married in Balance of Terror but Tomlinson was killed during the battle with the Romulans. That's the same episode where Stiles came from, he was the navigator.
> 
> The Misses Spock thing is a reference to Kirk calling Spock's mother Misses Sarek in Journey to Babel.


	24. Chapter 24

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is creepy as hell. This is a trigger warning, they interrogate one of the brothers.

"Stay over here," Jim said as she, Spock, and Robert Tomlinson pulled on their vests and jackets.

"If she's hurt…" Leonard started.

"I'll call you over as soon as it's clear, Bonesy. Stay on comms," she told him before handing him an earpiece and her tablet then heading out the back door. Sulu, Hendorff and Stiles were outside waiting for them.

"When did you guys call for back up?" the southerner asked as he situated the small device in his ear.

"When Garth appeared on the internal cameras," Spock said as he jogged past him to join up with Jim. Leonard watched as the group carefully and quietly made their way to the Grayson/Uhura house. Using the tablet that Jim left with him, he watched as they split into two teams. Jim, Sulu and Stiles took the back while Spock, Hendorff and Tomlinson took the front.

"Bones, where are they?" Jim asked quietly.

"They have her in the kitchen. She's fighting," he answered, watching as the Nero brothers tried -and failed- to get Nyota to comply with them. The teacher hit Garth in the head with a vase and kicked Finney in the shin. Jim was right, that woman was a lot tougher than she looked. Every time they thought they had her, she hit one of them. "Remind me never to piss her off."

"Told you," Sulu chuckled over the comms.

"Two," Jim said, "we go on your mark."

"In three, two, one, go," Spock said, using his key on the front door. His team went through the entryway just as Jim used another key one back door and went through with Sulu right next to her.

"Sheriff's Department," Jim called out. Garth turned to look at her, Finney grabbed Nyota and held the knife to her throat. "Drop it or I drop you."

"I got the shot," Sulu whispered.

"Ben, stand down," Jim ordered again. The man glared at her. Leonard couldn't tell what he was doing until he saw the blood trickle down Nyota's neck. "Hikaru," Jim gave Sulu a nod and he pulled the trigger. The bullet hit Finney right between the eyes. Tomlinson caught Ny before she could hit the floor with Finney while Spock kicked the weapon away from the dead man.

"I got her, Boss," Robert said, Nyota holding on to his shoulder.

"Kelvin, I need you to put your hands on the back of your head," Jim ordered. Garth did what Jim asked, Spock moved in behind the murderer and cuffed him. "Ny, you okay?"

"I'm fine. He hit like a girl," Joanna's teacher quipped as Jim checked her over.

"I know," Jim chuckled. "Take him to the station. Bones, we're clear if you wanna do all kinds of doctor-type stuff."

"Be there in a jiff, darlin'."

* * *

"What are you…?" Garth started but Jim put up her hand to stop him from talking and went back to reading the file in front of her. Spock and Leonard didn't say anything, they both knew she had something up her sleeve, even if they didn't know what it was. Jim told them to play along with her, so that's what they were going to do.

"This is impressive work, I gotta tell you. Your brother was a genius," Jim smiled. "To subdue these women wasn't difficult but the time it took to rape them. To kill them. To stab them," she sighed, "it's inspired work. He's gonna be famous. Benjamin Finney will be listed with Dahmer and Bundy and BTK."

Garth tried to look at the pictures Jim had in her hands but she didn't let him. The man looked at her, "It wasn't just him."

"What was that?" she asked.

"It wasn't just him. I did the hard stuff," Garth said. She was appealing to his narcissism. It was the best way to get a psychopath to talk; be impressed by them. Appeal to their self-esteem, their intelligence, wit and skill at pulling off the crime.

"Perhaps it would be wise to retain council before you continue. We would be remiss in our duties if we did not notify you of that right," Spock said from his spot near the door. There was a camera pointed at Garth and Leonard half-expected him to ask for a lawyer already but he knew that it was unlikely. Psychopath's think they're smarter than everyone else. Leonard heard the refusal before it came out of the man's mouth.

"It's fine, I don't need some idiot to come in here and tell me what to say," Garth told them.

"We're just doing our jobs but if you're sure, we can talk without a lawyer," Jim said, biting her lower lip and batting her eyelashes.

"I'm sure," Garth smiled as he leered at her. Leonard didn't let it show, but he was just a tad unnerved at the looks Garth kept giving Jim. He had to remind himself that she's playing this guy, who happens to have a thing for blonde, blue-eyed women.

"So, why don't you tell us what happened and what it felt like?" Leonard asked. Jim had to swear him in as a special deputy -for the investigation only- so he could help them talk to this guy. As one of the only people in town with real psychiatric training, he couldn't actually blame her for wanting to have that advantage. "I mean, I'm not like them, I'm a doctor most of the time. There's this rush you get when someone's life is in your hands. Is it like that for you?"

"Yes. That first one… I remember her eyes. Just like your eyes," Garth looked at Jim. "She squirmed a lot but, man, it felt so good on my cock when she moved like that. When Ben fucked her, she just watched me. I think she liked me more than him. It's why he cut her, he couldn't get off in her."

"You mean her?" Jim asked, putting a picture of Janet on the table.

"Yea. You look like her," Garth ran a finger along the picture. "You were family or something like that, right?"

"She was my dad's cousin. Some people thought she was my big sister, we're so much alike," Jim lied with a smile.

"I bet you'd feel just as good," Garth smirked. "I almost found out. We were interrupted." Garth looked at Leonard. "Tell me, what's she feel like? That was you at her house, you must know. How does the good sheriff feel when you're buried deep?"

"Honestly," Leonard sighed, "I've had better. She doesn't fight me as much as she did with you. I'll admit to being a little disappointed." Other than a slight clinch of her jaw, Jim didn't appear to be affected by the lie. "Tell me about Beth."

"The one with the short hair?" Garth smiled and Leonard nodded. "Bent that one over her desk. Something about fucking the life out of her in the school that just…" he shuddered. "I've never been so hard in my life. She cried so pretty for us. Especially when we fucked her at the same time. I can still feel that one when I think about it. Can I see her?" Jim placed Beth's picture on the table. "Hmm. I wish I had more time with her but Ben made me leave her."

"And Marla?" Spock asked.

"She was okay. I didn't fuck her, that one was all Benny. He wanted you, Sheriff Sexy, when the old dude showed up, Benny made me get rid of him. Heard he made it," Garth shrugged. "Tough son of a bitch."

"He is that," Jim said. "Why did Ben want me?"

"Well, he said you would be trouble. You gave me a good fight and he wanted your mother, you were in the way."

"What about you?" Leonard asked. "What did you want?"

"To make my brother happy," Garth said. "Our father didn't do a very good job of taking care of him."

"So, you took it as your job, to take care of Ben?" Jim asked. Garth nodded. "When did you know that you had this thing in common?"

"When he went to his prom. That sweet little thing he had as his date…" Garth licked his lips. "Mom and Toby weren't home, I listened while he fucked her. She started screaming and ran out. We sat and talked for hours about the best way to get a girl to do what we wanted. I got us hookers and showed him how. Fucked 'em good too. Like that last one. Let me see her."

"Why?" Spock asked. Garth just glared at him as Jim put Marla and Helen's pictures on the table.

"What happened with Helen? The pattern changed," Jim said.

"Her neighbor knocked on the door and she started making so much noise. Ben was fucking her and she started bucking and fighting, we had to kill her sooner than we wanted to. Funny thing is, all that blood made me hard again. I jacked off with her blood all over my hand, I came so fucking hard."

"Wow," Jim breathed. "I think that's all we need."

"So, you think I'll be famous like BTK?" Garth asked with a smile.

"I have no idea," Jim glared. "Don't care either." She grabbed the pictures and got up. "McCoy, Grayson." Jim left the room and the two men followed her into the hallway. As soon as the door closed Jim leaned against the wall. "I can't… I can't breathe."

"Relax, darlin'," Leonard said, his hand on her face. "Deep breath in, deep breath out." She nodded and tried to get air into her lungs. "Better?"

"Yea," she whispered.

"You know I didn't mean what I said in there," he told her.

"I know. It's not that. It's the way he looked at me," Jim said before she took another deep breath and stood to her full height. "Spock, find a deep, dark hole and put him in it."

The tall man nodded, "Understood, Sheriff."


	25. Chapter 25

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Since the last chapter was creepy, I decided to give everyone some fluffy McKirk.

"Shit, shit, shit," Jim muttered as she looked around Leonard's bedroom, looking adorably frazzled. "Have you seen my clothes and my phone?"

"I tossed your clothes in the laundry with mine. Your phone is on the charger over there. Where do you think you're going?" he asked. Leonard heard her moving around when he was in the kitchen and figured he'd stop her from trying to run out of the house.

"Work. I was supposed to be there hours ago," she huffed. "You could've woken me up, you know."

"Nope. You have the day off, doctor's orders. Spock took care of it before we left last night… this morning, whatever. Scotty and Mitchell have the department handled for the next few shifts while you and Spock get some well-earned and much needed rest," Leonard told her.

"Bones…"

"Don't. You've been going a million miles an hour for weeks, you need a break, darlin'. The last time I got you a break didn't end so well…"

"Wasn't all bad. I did end up here with you," Jim smiled.

"True. But still, you're more than overdue for some actual sleep," he wrapped an arm around her waist. "Get back into bed."

"But…"

"Don't make me sedate you," the southerner warned.

"You would too," she huffed. "I can't say no, can I?"

"That's generally what doctor's orders mean, Jimmy. I order you to relax," Leonard smiled.

"So, I'm on bed rest?" Jim asked.

"Something like that."

"Does it come with food?"

"As a matter of fact, it does. I'm making breakfast now," he told her.

"You're making me breakfast in bed?" she asked, her eyebrow raised.

"That's what I said," Leonard smiled. "Bed."

"But…"

"Bed."

"Fine," Jim sighed, pushing her hair out of her face. "Tyrant."

"And proud of it, darlin'," he chuckled before pressing a kiss against her temple and went back down the stairs to finish breakfast.

* * *

"Why do we need Christmas lights?" Leonard asked as he handed them to Jim.

"Ambiance," she said in a cute French accent. "Adds to the epicness of the blanket fort."

"Is epicness a real word?" he raised an eyebrow.

"Don't know, don't care," Jim smiled. "Don't be a grump. You wanted me to take the day off and relax, this is me relaxing. Besides, you never built a blanket fort and that is just a travesty. How is it that you had a childhood without never building a fort anyway?"

"It's warm in Georgia most of the time," Leonard pointed out. "I had a treehouse."

"Ooo, little Lenny wasn't afraid of heights. Oh, you're gonna have to show me pictures before I believe that one. What was little you like?" she asked as she stung the lights inside the fort.

"I don't know. I was just me, I guess. I did my homework and my chores, then I went outside to play with my cousins. We didn't build forts but we did build rafts."

"Really?"

"Yea. This one time, when I was seven we built a raft and sailed down the Chattahoochee River. My cousin, David, named after my dad, almost drowned when the raft broke apart. We sat on the shore with his sister and laughed for hours. We got to the house covered in mud with a frog. Mama and Aunt Marie just shook their heads at us. Ended up getting floor mopping duty for months. David and Donna got to keep the frog though."

"Awww, I bet there are pictures of a little muddy Bones," Jim giggled.

"Mama has plenty, I'm sure. Is this thing done yet?"

"Yep. The fort is complete. You gotta name it."

"Oh, I gotta name it, huh?" he asked.

"First rule of the fort; it has to have a name."

"Hmm, I say we name it Fort… Joanna," Leonard said the first thing he could think of.

"I think that is a perfect fort name," she smiled. "Get in there."

"What are you gonna do?"

"Follow you as soon as I grab that stack of stuff over there."

Leonard chuckled before he crawled into the blanket fort in his living room. There was a part of him that couldn't believe he let her talk him into this and another part that was just happy she was doing something that made her smile. Jim used the thicker blankets for the roof and the walls, so there wasn't much light from outside and the Christmas light did give off a rather soothing glow. Add the fact that almost all the pillows in the house were in this thing and Fort Joanna was downright relaxing.

"So, we have our X-Files marathon to finish or we could read," Jim said as she crawled in with his laptop and some books. "My vote would be for George Orwell's _1984_ or William Golding's _Lord of the Flies_ but that's just me."

" _Lord of the Flies_ ," Leonard said. It was one of those books that he read in English class in high school. The more religious members of his community brought up some issue with the book every few years but they never really got anywhere with it. When he was a little older, he started to understand the Freudian aspects of the story and why they had a problem. It was just too realistic for some people.

"Figured you would pick the one with the boys stranded on an island," she chuckled.

"Yep," he chuckled and took the book out of her hands. Jim sat the other stuff down and snuggled against his shoulder. "So, I'm reading?"

"I like your voice. Besides, I'm supposed to be resting, remember?"

"Yes. Yes, you are," Leonard smiled, pressing a kiss on the top of her head. "So, chapter one: The Sound of the Shell."

* * *

"They're so cute," Leonard heard someone whisper. He must've fallen asleep sometime after Jim did. Leonard shifted a little, Jim snuggling closer to him as he did.

"I know," his daughter whispered back. "Are you really gonna take their picture?"

"Yep. It's the only way my sister will believe me when I tell her that Leonard actually let Jim build a fort," the first voice, which he realized was Gaila, said.

"If you wake her up, I will hurt you," Leonard whispered.

"Yea, yea," Gaila said quietly. "She inducted you into the fort club, huh?"

"Something like that. Welcome to Fort Joanna," he smiled.

"Ooo, they named it after me," his daughter smiled. "Is there room in there for one more?"

"Of course there is. Watch the computer," Leonard muttered, eternally grateful that Jim was wearing a pair of his pajama pants and a tank top instead of the lack of clothing she had going on earlier. Joanna crawled in on his free side and rested her head on his chest next to Jim's. "Hey, Jojo."

"Hi, daddy. This place is comfy," Joanna smiled. "You guys did a good job."

"Miss Jim built it, I'm just in here," he chuckled. "You coming in here too, Gaila?"

"No. I'm gonna leave before you guys give me a toothache with all the sweetness," the redhead smiled. "I'll see you tomorrow."

"See ya," Leonard said. He'd thank her for watching Jo but she never actually lets him get the words out before she rolls her eyes at him and looks at him like he's crazy, so he'll just save his breath.

"What are you doing in here?" Jo asked.

"Reading and sleeping and watching Netflix," he told her.

"Anything good?" his daughter asked.

"A few things. Nothing I would let you read or watch for a few years," Leonard said.

"Figured as much," Jo muttered.

" _The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe_ is over there," Jim mumbled against his chest.

"Really?" he asked.

"I was into Narnia before those dumb movies came out," Jim said with a yawn. "I know that the books were written for kids, which I was when I read it the first few times, but I still like them, so there. Hey, Jo."

"Hi, Miss Jim," Joanna smiled, grabbed the book in question and held it out to him. "So, daddy…"

"Not you too," Leonard chuckled.

"You're good at reading books," Jo giggled.

"She's right," Jim nodded.

"I'm not gonna win this one, am I?" he asked. Jim and Jo shook their heads in unison. "Alright. Get comfy."

* * *

"Where'd this scar come from?" Jim asked, her thumb brushing over his left eyebrow.

"Got thrown off a horse when I was sixteen. I had a concussion and bruised ribs," he smiled.

"Was it a big horse?" Joanna asked.

"He was a nice sized horse, I guess. David spooked him and the next thing I know, I'm waking up in the hospital," Leonard shrugged.

"I can't believe you had a treehouse and you used to ride horses," Jim smiled.

"I _have_ a treehouse. It's still there, even though I haven't been in it in a long time. And I can still ride a horse. My mama has one, beautiful Friesian mare named Betsy," he told her.

"Are you gonna show me the horse?" Jim asked.

"Well, the only way to do that is to get you to my mama's house. Are you going to Georgia with us?" Leonard looked at her.

"Well, I was invited," she pointed out.

He smiled, "Yes, ma'am, you were."

* * *

"Are you sure you want me to stay the night?" Jim asked while Joanna was getting ready for bed.

"Depends. Are you gonna find an excuse to go to the station if you leave?" Leonard countered. Jim didn't say anything, her blue eyes looking everywhere but at him. "That's what I thought. You built this fort, so we're gonna sleep in it."

"You're gonna spend the night in a fort. Who are you and where is the real Leonard McCoy?" she chuckled.

"Hardy har har. I happen to find that thing to be very comfortable, darlin'. Since I have two jobs now, I need all my rest," he smirked.

"Oh, please. You have very limited sheriff's department powers and you don't get paid. Hell, technically, the case is over as soon as we get everything filed and to Arin Shaw, the county attorney. You won't have to do anything but show up in court," Jim smiled. She looked at him for a long moment. "I never did thank you for helping with that whole mess."

"I don't expect you to. This is my town too and they killed someone where my daughter and your nephew go to school. If helping you got them dead and in custody faster than not helping, it was my pleasure."

"You have to stop being adorable."

"Says who?"


	26. Chapter 26

"You don't need to be nervous, darlin'," Leonard said as he drove the rental car towards his childhood home.

"Easy for you to say," Jim muttered.

"How? You didn't see the look Chris gave me when he figured it out. His hand hovered over his gun and I could swear he was plotting my demise," he chuckled.

"He was just messing with you," she smiled.

"I know that now. It didn't feel like that at the time," Leonard said. "My mama is not nearly as bad as Chris."

"I'm not scared of your mom, Bones. I'm just… We don't do the whole 'meet the parent's' thing in Riverside. There aren't enough people and we all know each other. Everyone in the same age range went to school together and that means your folks went to school together too. You don't go out with someone if your family doesn't like 'em. If Chris or Sam had even a little problem with you, we wouldn't've even been friends. So, pardon me for being a little nervous. I mean… What if she doesn't like me?" Jim asked with a sigh.

"She already likes you, Miss Jim," Joanna said from the back seat. Jim glanced back at Jo. "I talk about you all the time."

"I don't know if that actually helps, sweetie," Jim mumbled.

"Just be yourself," Jo said. "Nana likes people who are honest and real. You already got that down."

"I'd listen to her if I were you, she's the smart one," he chuckled.

"She gets it from you," Jim smiled. She took a deep breath.

"Just be the person I know and love and you'll be fine," Leonard told her.

"Just be me," Jim sighed. "I can do that."

"Yes, you can," he kissed the hand he was holding.

After a relatively quiet week and a half, where no one died and Jim went to see her step-dad, they were in Georgia. His original plan was to wait until after Christmas but his mother brought their tickets for the Thursday before Christmas and they'll return to Iowa on Monday, right before the holiday travel rush starts. It was actually a good thing considering that the sheriff's department all earned a vacation of some kind.

"We're here," Leonard told his girls. He watched Jim out of the corner of his eye as he pulled his car into his mother's driveway. Her eyes went wide and she glanced at him.

"This place is huge," Jim muttered.

"It's okay," he shrugged.

"Your house is bigger than all three Kirk houses put together," she chuckled.

"It's the McCoy house and it's not that big," Leonard smiled. Jim gave him a look. "About the size of Winona and George's houses… maybe."

"Not that much of a difference, Bonesy," Jim smiled.

"If you say so, darlin'," he chuckled and gave her a quick kiss. "Come on, ladies." Leonard hopped out of the car and looked around before getting Jim and Jo's doors.

"You're practically giddy. Who are you?" Jim asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I'm just happy," Leonard smiled. He was a bit more excited than he thought he'd be. Maybe it was because his mama's been asking about Jim since he first mentioned her or maybe it was the fact that Jim was going to get a chance to see where he came from.

"Joanna Banana!" his mother called from the porch.

"Nana!" Jo called and ran ahead of Jim and Leonard.

"Look at you. Did you get taller?" his mama asked his daughter as she pulled the girl into her arms.

"I don't know," Jo shrugged with a smile. "We'll have to check."

"Yes, we will," his mother smiled. "Leonard Horatio McCoy, you better get yourself over here."

"Hey, mama," Leonard smiled as he walked over and was pulled into a hug. "There's someone I want you to meet." He let his mother to wrap an arm around Jim. "Mama, this is Jamison Kirk. Jim, this is my mother, Eleanor McCoy."

"Everyone calls me Miss Ellie, Jamison," his mother smiled.

"Everyone calls me Jim, Miss Ellie," Jim smiled back.

"Well, why don't you and Jo come on in and help me while Leonard and his cousin get the bags?" his mama said.

"David's here?" Leonard asked.

"He is. I'll send him out to you. He can tell you what's going on," his mother told him before she pulled Jim and Jo into the house.

Leonard went back to the car to get their stuff when he spotted his cousin heading his way. David smiled, "Look who's back in town."

"What are you doing here?" Leonard asked as he pulled David into a hug.

Though they were cousins, Leonard and David were raised almost as brothers. Always tight, their relationship took on a whole other meaning when Donna, David's older sister, died in a car accident when they were all teenagers. Leonard watched his cousin and best friend turn into a wreak. If it wasn't for his father, Leonard was sure the younger David wouldn't be alive right now.

"I finally started school. I know it's late but… you know," David said.

"It's dad and Donna would've wanted. And it's never too late," Leonard smiled. "Where?"

"Georgia Tech, believe it or not."

"Well, you were always smart enough for it. When you start?"

"Classes begin on January eleventh," his cousin said. "Aunt El said I could stay with her. My folks still aren't talking to me but that's not necessarily a bad thing."

"What's it been, three years?" Leonard asked.

"Three years, two months, a week and four days sober," David smiled. "It's feels so good. I'm still attending meetings and your mom makes me go to church too but overall, it's good."

"I'm glad. I was worried," Leonard admitted.

"I know," the slightly younger man said. "I also know why you had to step away. I mean, she was as much your big sister as she was mine and you lost her too. After she was gone… I would've pulled you down. But enough with all this mushy stuff. Tell me about the future Misses McCoy two-point-oh."

"I wouldn't go that far," Leonard laughed as he handed David Jo's bag.

"Oh, please. It took you over a year to bring Jocelyn home. You've known this girl since August and she's already here? Put a ring on it and call it a day," his cousin chuckled.

"One thing at a time," Leonard chuckled. "You're worse than Jo."

"Hey, that kid is brilliant and a good judge of character. She takes after her dad. If she gave you her blessing, you should at least think about it."

* * *

"Alright, David, that's enough," Leonard said to his cousin.

"But it's just getting good, Bonesy," Jim smiled. David started telling her all kinds of embarrassing stories as soon as the two of them met.

"That's because he's exaggerating, darlin'," the doctor smiled.

"I am not. There are pictures," David smiled.

"Don't even think about it," Leonard pointed at the two of them. "Mama, help me out."

"Why on Earth would I wanna do that, Lenny? I love watching you get a flustered," his mother chuckled. "Besides, you live in a town where most people have known Jim all her life, it's only fair for her to get some stories about you."

"I don't have to like it," he grumbled with a smile.

"He's not as grumpy as he likes people to think he is," David stage whispered to Jim.

"Oh, I know," Jim stage whispered back. "He's so cute and sweet when he thinks nobody is paying attention."

"That's it. I'm separating you two," Leonard told them.

"You're gonna take my new friend away, Lenny?" his cousin asked with his hands over his heart.

Leonard laughed, "You'll get over it."

"Will I?" Jim asked with a pout.

"Don't look at me like that, darlin'," Leonard said. "I'm not being mean. It's... it's fine." Jim looked at David, then the two of them burst into laughter.

"He's so easy," David laughed.

"I know," Jim chuckled.

"Oh, you two," Leonard threw one of the pillows from the couch at them. "Ya'll are horrible."

"We are not. We're just bonding at your expense," Jim laughed.

David gave her a high-five, "Nice. I like her."

"So do I," Leonard smiled. "So do I."

* * *

"You brought _him_ to my mother's house, are you high?" Leonard asked his ex-wife. It started out innocent enough, his mother invited Jocelyn to come to dinner to see Joanna, who agreed. But, like most things that involved his ex-wife, it went sideways as soon as she showed up. Lyn sprung Clay on them at the last minute.

"It wasn't my idea," she muttered. "And your… girlfriend is here."

"Mama invited Jim out here and Jo likes her," he pointed out.

"They don't know Clay," Jocelyn pointed out.

"Mama does and Jo's a lot more observant than you realize," Leonard told her. He took a deep breath. "Look, I don't like this but I'll be civil with him as long as he's civil with me."

"Okay," Lyn nodded before the two of them walked back into the living room. Clay was sitting on the loveseat by himself while Jim, Jo and David were all on the couch giving him a hybrid of the Kirk and McCoy stare downs. It was equal parts comical and impressive.

"So… Umm. Jamison, right?" Clay asked. Jim just gave him a nod. "What do you do?"

"She gets rid of scumbags," Joanna answered. It took every ounce of control for Leonard not to laugh at Jo's Mini-Jim impersonation.

"I work for the Sheriff's Department," Jim said coolly.

"So, you're like a deputy?" Clay asked, ignoring Jo. Bad move.

"No, I'm the Sheriff," Jim told him.

"You're kidding," Jocelyn's boyfriend said.

"She's not," Jo said. "Youngest in the county and second youngest in the country. She's awesome."

"She is," Leonard smiled proudly.

"Seems like a downgrade there, Leonard," Clay said.

"I'm the top law enforcement official in my county. I'm responsible for the safety of twenty-two thousand people over five hundred and seventy-one square miles and I'm two weeks shy of my twenty-seventh birthday. I'm nobody's downgrade, sure as hell not Leonard's because I'm not a cheater," Jim said. "Only a slight offense intended, Jocelyn."

"Only a slight offense taken, Jim," Jocelyn smiled. Leonard looked at his ex-wife, then his girlfriend, then his ex-wife again before he looked at his mother, who just stepped into the room with a big smile.

"If I were you," his mother said to Clay, "I'd stop talking. You're lucky I even let you in the door. That girl was facing down murderers a few weeks ago, attempt to insult my son again and I'll let her kick your ass. Now, come on, ya'll, dinner's ready."

"You okay with this?" Jim whispered as everyone else headed to the dining room.

"I'll be fine. He's an ass," Leonard whispered back.

"No kidding," she chuckled.

"What I wanna know is, what's with you and Jocelyn?" he asked.

"We met at the church," Jim shrugged. He gave her a look. "I don't necessarily like her, because she cheated on you, but I can't actually hate her. She's Jo's mother and, if it wasn't for her, you never would've moved to Riverside."

"You're a bigger person than me, child," his mother said as she joined them. "I would beat the crap outta her."

"Now, Miss Ellie," Jim smiled, "I thought about it. Wouldn't help anyone and I don't like hurting people unless I have to. Besides, I kinda feel bad for her."

"You feel bad for that hussy that cheated on my boy?" his mother asked.

Jim shook her head, "No. I feel bad for the woman who took her husband and daughter for granted and didn't realize just how much until she didn't have them anymore. Me and Bones aren't married but I know what she's missing out on. He's too good for her."

His mother smiled, "Well, child, you got that right."

* * *

"I have something for you," his mother said when he stepped into the kitchen the day he and his girls were due to go home.

"For me?" Leonard asked.

"Well, sorta," she smiled and sat the jewelry box on the table.

"What's this?" he asked as he opened it. "Grandma's ring. Mama, I can't take this."

"You can and you will. I want you to have it for when you ask that girl to marry you."

"Don't you mean 'if' I ask her?"

"No, I meant what I said," his mother told him. "When you ask her to marry you, I want her to have my mother's ring."

"Mama, we've only been together for a little over a month," he said.

"You've know each other longer than that. Me and your papa got married after we knew each other for two months. We had forty good years and you. Besides, sometimes you just know," his mother smiled. "Watching the two of you together… You don't see what I see just yet but one day soon, you're gonna wake up and look at that woman and realized that you don't wanna live without her. When you ask her to marry you, she'll say yes."

"How do you know that?"

"Because she already looks at you like she can't imagine a world without you in it. She's just waiting for you to catch up. Trust your mama on this one, Lenny. This time next year, that girl's gonna be your wife and, unlike the last one, she already has my blessing."


	27. Epilogue

"There's my favorite person in the whole wide world," Jim said with a big smile as she walked into the house.

"Well, I know you love me, darlin'," Leonard chuckled.

"I'm not talking about you," she rolled her eyes at him and leaned over to kiss the little girl on his lap. "I'm talking about you. Hi, Jenny."

"Mama," their daughter smiled.

"See, Bones, I'm her favorite too," Jim giggled.

"Mama, play," Jennifer Maureen McCoy demanded. Their fourteen-month-old daughter, named after Jim and Leonard's mothers' middle names, respectfully, was the spitting image of her mother. If he thought it was hard to say no to Jim, Jenny made it damn near impossible, welding her bright blue eyes, McCoy scowl and Mini-Kirk smile like weapons.

"Give mama a minute, sweetie," she kissed the top of the little girl's head again before pressing a soft kiss against Leonard's lips. "Hi, my third favorite person."

"Third? Really, Sheriff?" Leonard gave her a look.

"Jo has you beat, not sorry about that at all," Jim pointed out with a bright smile. "I'm gonna go put my gun in the safe and grab a shower."

"We'll be here," he chuckled.

"Or you can ask her sister to keep an eye on her while you wash my back," she said with a smirk.

"Wash your back, huh?" Leonard asked, picking his daughter up as he did. "Is that what we're calling it now?"

"There are little ears, love," Jim chuckled as she made her way up the stairs.

"Uh huh," he smiled. "Wanna go see your sister, baby girl?"

"Jojojojo," Jenny smiled.

"Yep, Jojo and Peter. Can you say Peter?" Leonard asked. Jenny gave him a pout. "Didn't think so, kid. Come on, let's go find Jojo so that daddy can have a few minutes with mama."

As usual, his mother was right. He and Jim were together for five months when that moment his mother warned him about hit him like a ton of bricks. There wasn't anything special about April seventh. It was a Friday, he went to work like he usually did, came home to find Jim and Jo sitting on his couch painting their toenails and watching old Star Trek episodes, giggling about how the grumpy doctor reminded them of him. Leonard just looked at Jim and knew.

Of course, being the stubborn person he is, he didn't actually ask her until the Fourth of July. Jim was working, like most of the department, but she stopped by the Independence Day/Chris and Erin engagement cookout that her brother put together. Everyone was gushing about Nyota and Arlene's baby bumps when Winona made a comment about Jim having a baby. Naturally, that led to a conversation about if he and Jim would ever get married. The words came tumbling out his mouth before he could stop them.

_Jim looked at him above her sunglasses before she burst into laughter. "Did you really just propose to me? That was horrible, Bones. Like, really bad."_

_"Tell me something I don't know. I've been trying to come up with something for months but nothing seems to fit just right," Leonard sighed._

_"Months?" she asked._

_"Yes, months. I've been in love with you since I met you. It's just… I was a mess and you were a mess but together, we kinda balance out each others' messes," he took a deep breath. "And I wanted it to be, I don't know, special but I guess this is as good a place as any. So, Jamison Tabitha Kirk, I'm asking you, in front of all these people who love us no matter how messy we are, would you do me the honor of being my wife?"_

_"Thought you swore off getting married again?" Jim asked._

_"I do a lot of things these days that I swore I'd never do before you showed up. You have that effect on people," Leonard chuckled._

_"Not apologizing for it," she smiled._

_He shrugged, "Don't expect you to."_

_"Friends and family only at the wedding and I'm not wearing white," Jim declared._

_"Done and done. Is that a yes?" Leonard asked._

_"Of course that's a yes, Bonesy," she smiled as he pulled her into his arms to the cheers and whistles from their friends._

That was just over four years ago.

Their wedding took place on a beautiful snowy day in November, his mother and cousin coming up from Georgia for the occasion, bringing with them a whole slew of "I told you so"s between the pair of them. Jim just laughed at his discomfort and pointed out that he set himself up for it. She caught her own teasing from their friends when she caved on the color of her wedding dress. It was white but, as Jim reminded people, it was her mother's dress and Jim had no intention on ruining it just because she wasn't traditional. Jim did let her personality show by wearing converses instead of heels though.

The day after they got back from Georgia, Jim and Winona locked themselves in the older woman's house for ten hours. When Jim finally did come over to his house that night, there was this peace about her that she didn't have before. The only thing she would tell him was that he and his mother helped put some pieces of back together. After that, Jim and Winona made an actual effort to behave as mother and daughter instead of two people forced to interact.

As a matter of fact, the two woman got so close that Winona was almost a constant presence at the house, even after Leonard and Jo moved in. It was something that he was grateful for when Jim had to go on maternity and he was still working. His wife was not happy about forcing herself to endure desk duty when she no longer fit into her vest, which was the deal they made with regards to her working during her pregnancy. She was elected to stay on as Sheriff and swore in for her first full term when she was three months along.

Aside from not being able to go on regular patrols or special operations like she was used to, Jim did her job just as well as she always did. She delegated her more dangerous duties to the others, Scotty and Sulu splitting a lot of Spock's duties as he started taking over a lot of Jim's while she focused on training Chekov -the kid's quite the investigator- and running the jail. The day she had to -temporarily- hand over the department to Spock, Leonard could swear she would burst into tears. He even stayed home with her that first day because her emotions were, understandably, all over the place.

July tenth, three years into their marriage, Jim gave birth to their little girl. Jo couldn't contain her excitement because she always wanted a little sister and they -coincidentally- gave the baby a first name that starts with J. His older daughter never lets him hear the end of it, even picking out names for her hypothetical future siblings. Jim just encourages her even though she's not exactly sold on the idea of having another baby anytime soon. She likes to say that Jo and Jen are enough, more than she ever thought she'd have, biologically or not, but Leonard's not so sure she completely means that.

"Are you gonna just stand there?" Jim chuckled. He had passed Jen to Jo and now he was standing in his and Jim's bathroom -not- staring at his wife.

"I don't know, I might. It's a nice view," he smiled, leaning against the counter.

"Oh, please. The stretch marks really give my six pack definition," she laughed.

"I like it," Leonard told her honestly. "I mean, those marks are just evidence of where that cute little mix of your eyes and my scowl used to reside."

"She may look like me but she is very much a daddy's girl," Jim chuckled. "She's gonna have some competition in like seven months."

"Yea, well… wait. What?"

"You're gonna have your hands full with three of us."

"You're… we're…? How is it that I didn't notice that?" He's a damn good doctor. How the hell did miss pregnancy symptoms in his own wife?

"It's not just you. I didn't realize how late I was until yesterday and I haven't had morning sickness. I'm around eight or nine weeks if my math is right," she told him. Leonard didn't say anything, counting the weeks in his head even though he knew she was usually spot on about this stuff. "Earth to Bones."

"I'm… This is good," he smiled, stepping into the shower with her.

"Bones, you're still wearing your clothes," Jim chuckled.

"Don't care. You're having my baby," Leonard smiled, peppering kisses all her face and neck.

"Wouldn't be the first time," she laughed.

"True but that's not gonna stop me from being excited," he chuckled as she pushed his wet shirt over his head. "You think we'll get a boy this time?"

"I certainly hope so. I need someone to roll around in the dirt with me," Jim smiled.

"Not so sure Jenny would be opposed to that idea," Leonard reminded her.

"Well, I do have a habit of getting McCoys to do just about anything," she looked up at him.

"You say that like you ain't a McCoy yourself there, darlin'."

* * *

Leonard couldn't sleep. It wasn't that anything was bothering him and the house was downright peaceful, he was just too excited to shut off. Next to him, his wife was sound asleep, her hand protectively resting on her still flat stomach. Even though she told him about the baby weeks ago, he couldn't believe it. It's not that the subject of Jim having another child has never come up, it was just unexpected. Leonard let out a quiet chuckle as he realized that Jim was the embodiment of unexpected.

He remembers the day they met like it was yesterday, her arms shooting out to catch Joanna before his little girl fell. Since then, Jim's been busting through every wall he built to protect himself. Worming her way into his head and heart and refusing to give up on him, even when she was slowing starting to give up on herself. He remembers how she put it on their wedding day; " _We're puzzles, Bones, each with a bunch of gaps until we were tossed together and found the missing pieces in each other_."

Leonard gently pulled his wife closer, Jim snuggling against his chest as he did. "Sleep, Bones."

"Whatever you say, boss," he said quietly.

"Damn straight."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's the end. *tear* It was so hard to actually finish this one. The story ended up being a few chapters longer than it was supposed to be.


End file.
